Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id MAA26747 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 29 May 2000 12:59:22 +0100 From: Robin Faichney <robin@faichney.demon.co.uk> Organization: Reborn Technology To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: The Industrial Evolution Date: Mon, 29 May 2000 12:37:35 +0100 X-Mailer: KMail [version 1.0.21] Content-Type: text/plain References: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D310174587E@inchna.stir.ac.uk> Message-Id: <00052912554101.00664@faichney> Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Watched a programme on Channel 4 last night, first of a series of 5 or 6
on the industrial revolution, and why it took off where and when it did.
The prog makers have gotten together 5 academic specialists in relevant areas,
and apparently they're going to reach back to 10,000 BCE (or 10k years ago,
at least), to try to find all relevant factors. Last night, though, they
focussed on the year 1830, and Simon Schaffer, a Cambridge historian,
discussed what was happening then, and what factors caused/allowed these
developments. Like, the technology required to make cylinders for the new
steam engines was very similar to what was already being used to make
cannon. And, the widespread habitual drinking of tea, believe it or not,
allowed cities to grow much bigger, because it has antibiotic properties,
and the limiting factor was public health, specifically the frequency of
epidemics which increases with population density.
Anyway, I'm glad to say there was lots of talk of ideas, discoveries and
inventions coming together, with social factors, and no mention of
natural resource depletion, whatsoever. Of course, that might come up in
a future programme. But I'd guess the chance of it being judged more
significant than the combinatorial effects of discoveries, inventions and
their communication, is zero. The exponential development of science and
technology over the last few hundred years in the West fits that model so
well, I have to question the motives of anyone who claims to doubt it.
-- Robin Faichney===============================This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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