Comments on: Masters of reality, not big thinkers

By: Sam J.

Sam J. — Sat, 15 Apr 2017 00:10:36 +0000

There’s an explanation of this that depends on the political structure of Asians. I think it’s in this book.

The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force, and Society since A.D. 1000
by William H. McNeill

He’s wrote about a Industrial Revolution that started in China. I don’t remember all the names or dates but it was well before the IR in England. A iron maker made a very large iron industry to supply iron for the Emperor. The problem was he got too rich and too powerful and the Emperor decided to confiscate his iron works. He fought but lost.

There was no competing power and the ruling class refused to allow anyone to get as wealthy or come close to getting the same power they had. In Europe competing powers allowed businessmen to compete. Any one State that did not do so fell behind in trade and military power.

There’s actually a similar situation in large corporations these days that holds back advances. One example is variable valve timing. Most all small cars have it now providing much better acceleration, power and fuel economy. The guy who patented this was never paid a dime. They refused to pay him even though it would be of great advantage to their cars. The real reason I think they refused was that if they gave him a small amount for his variable valves, say a dollar a car, he would have made more money than the executives that ran the car companies and by God they couldn’t stand for that so we were denied advances so they wouldn’t have people making more money than them. Even if they paid him five dollars a car it would have been worth it for the consumer because if you increase the power of the car engine you get all kinds of cascading benefits in lower weight, which also allows even less engine weight…etc., etc.,it’s a big difference.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Sun, 26 Mar 2017 17:37:36 +0000

The vikings started overfishing the cod harvest in the Baltic a thousand years ago. As the cod moved to the Grand Banks,the cod fleets got huge and went from round ships to tall ships. Thousands of ships from Portugal to the Basque to the British Isles to the Basque and Dutch and Germans and Scandinavians. Western Europe is one long lee shore- ships that can sail there can sail anywhere in the world. Hundreds of thousands of skilled sailors, millions of disposable proles who could be trained by the skilled. A habit of capital investment in ships and men. That's what made Europe's Guns, Sails, and Empires all around the world.

By: Nose Picker

Nose Picker — Sun, 26 Mar 2017 15:16:42 +0000

Wasn’t this actually the basis of an entire episode of the series “The Ascent of Man”?

Let me go look up the episode name…

Episode 8, “The Drive to Power” which talks about the Lunar Society in England (and Ben Franklin’s association with that whole movement), and the practical, individualistic spirit of the Industrial Revolution.

But anyway, isn’t this the premise of all the hard science fiction authors?