We will discuss Steven Johnson’s How We Got to Now at our meeting on Wednesday, October 25th at 4:00p.m. in the GAHS library. Please post questions, comments, concerns, criticism, and the like on this blog prior to, during, or after our meeting (before November 6th if you want extra credit). All questions and responses should indicate an active reading of the text and function to move the conversation forward. (Note: surface-level or obvious questions and responses will not count as participation.)
Those of you unable to attend due to scheduling conflicts may participate in the discussion below by posting a discussion question and offering a detailed response, or by responding to two questions already posted. The note above applies here as well, so heed it!
Hi everyone.
Johnson’s central perspective in writing about disparate histories of innovations is that these innovations “ripple” through society. Whether it was glass and the printing press or air conditioning, each invention ricocheted off the other and lead to some massive social paradigm shift unanticipated by any conscious intentions. In the introduction, he states that debating new innovations in the context of the idea of the “hummingbird effect” is important for our civilization to be aware of their effects, whether positive or negative.
So my question is that, given this perspective and these foundational innovations, what innovations now dictate How We Get to the Future?
For me, nothing is more prevalent in society today than digital technology. We have innovations like smartphones and high-speed broadband connections, which enable endless possible applications. Of course, narrowing that down to the Internet is still too broad, which leads me to consider just one part of the Internet. How about Facebook? Nearly a third of the entire world population (2 billion of a total 7 billion) uses Facebook, and as such it is a platform which potentially wields unimaginable political influence in disseminating information and even shaping people’s world views. We have already seen it used by Russia to propagate fake news to sway our own domestic politics, and similarly in other countries like Indonesia it was used by hard-right Islamists to spark massive protests to depose a moderate (https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21721202-local-election-shows-how-unscrupulous-can-manipulate-religion-win-office-indonesia-has). The social aspects of our politics is certainly something to debate, but Johnson showed that innovations, Facebook’s technology in this case, are increasingly another facet of civics, and historians who would look back at today as Johnson did at what air-conditioning did for Reagan would agree that we must understand its effects.
1.) What was the most valuable innovation/Why were the innovations put in this specific order?
In my opinion each innovation from glass to light were undoubtedly all necessary in the modernization of the world now, however I feel that glass is the most valuable. I also believe that Steven Johnson intentionally put “Glass” first in his book because the use of glass is, not only in our eyes, but also Johnson’s, the most important for his argument. In his introduction Johnson describes the hummingbird effect and also adjacent possibility. Taking a long scope approach as Johnson called it we can see that glass was not only affected by many other hummingbird effects, like the Renaissance calling for a need of glass for decor, but also effected most other innovations following glass, for example the innovation of “cleanliness” would not be adjacent possible without glass aiding in the increase of literature causing the increase of science allowing for innovations to be made on hygiene. In short, Glass is the most important innovation because it reflects all aspects Johnson said an innovation needed and also affecting all future innovations, because of it’s effect throughout time it was placed first in Johnson’s book to be used as a reference to future innovations impacting society.
2.) Is our society making innovations that may change our society as we know it right now?
Society has no idea what the consequences of our actions today may be, and this is seen often times in the book where inventions are accidentally created or created with a different purpose leading to countless advancements. This can be seen in the case of Eduoard Leon Scott’s invention of the phonautograph in “Sound”. Scott created a machine that could record sound but didn’t include an audio playback. This led to the advancements on audio technology to progress from Scott’s inventions leading to the invention of both the phone and radio in the same century. In any case of invention or discover an argument can be made that the inventor could not even predict the capabilities of a technology that they pioneered. To answer the question, we may be making changes in the modern world right now, but we will never be able to know how impact these changes will be in the distant future. For example, Frederic Tudor never could have imagined that his marketing of ice would incidentally lead to a change in politics in america.
1. Was there a specific reason why he chose these six innovations?
I believe that these six innovations were chosen from his opinion. He did not simply choose guesswork and pick six that seemed cool; no, he actively attempted to research and write factual evidence for each of these six innovations that did change the world.
2. Why did Steven Johnson include pictures in the book?
In the meeting, we discussed that the book was actually a PBS Documentary. Meaning, this entire book was based onto the documentary. These pictures were most likely the same pictures that were being used in the documentary, used to fill empty space within the book, and/or were used to give visuals to the audience to make the process of the overload of information easier.
3. Which innovation was the most valuable to humans?
I agree with Grace on how the most valuable innovation to humans is glass because glass is in nearly everything; windows, eye-glasses, drinking glasses, technology of all kinds, etc. Glass is extremely important in not just the modern world, but since the innovation was first created.
4. Why did Steven Johnson not edit his book?
I don’t know if it was just me, but I noticed a handful of errors within the novel with grammar and spelling. This really bothered me because it ruined the illusion of the novel because I was continually thinking of the error instead of the story I was reading.
1) Why did the author include pictures throughout the book?
I agree with Grace’s statement that these pictures provided a way for the reader to see the how these inventions have changed over time and how they impacted society. I think he also provided them to allow us to see the changes over time in daily life and society (not just the invention). When I first saw the people dragging ice blocks across the Chicago streets to chill a restaurants food, this is vastly differently then how we view ice now. In bags that we can easily carry and little ice packs that we carry around in lunch boxes.
2) Could there have be a reason as to why he put the innovations in that specific order? How could he have done it differently?
I agree with Kayla that Johnson should have put them in some type of order. Since in my opinion this caused the book to have an unorganized flow and made it hard for me to place the innovations at certain times. I do think he did it this way to represent the chaotic flow in which innovations are created. We can see with Bell and Tesla they basically came up with the same idea at the same time, so there could be other innovations like this.
3) Why did Johnson use words such as Light, Cold, and Glass to label his chapters and not specific inventions?
This really bothered me through out the book, why couldn’t Johnson just pick one invention to label the chapters. Also since he had cold why did he not include heat? However, I think he did this to show that even at their base levels these innovations were helpful. We can also use this model to come up with new innovations that can help us develop. We can see this with silicon, most just think of it as an naturally occurring element. Recently we have started using silicon to make computer wires and their chips. Johnson is testing us to see if we can find something basic and turn it into something new.
1. Which innovation was the most valuable to humans?
After reading the book in its entirety, the innovation of glass stuck out to me as it changed the way humans perceive themselves. The invention of glass allowed us to express our religion, our beliefs, and our personality through different constructions of glass. Glass allowed humans to express themselves. As glass was being used for different sources, such as spectacles, it allowed the Europeans shift from illiterate to literate. The spectacles made them see what they were missing and books became a must, the inquiring of knowledge. The innovation of the glass was useful as it shifted our perception of ourselves and changed our personalities.
2. Why did Steven Johnson include pictures throughout the book?
I believe Steven Johnson included pictures to show the beauty of the innovation and its impact it had on society. To see the inventors of these innovations and all the uses of the innovation made me appreciate the innovation and the book more.
1) Why did the author find the need to included the modern consequences of these six inventions when he could have simply left it out?
Note: I agree with Johnson and the six inventions he chose to highlight, but what could his purpose be in exposing the truth of how these specific inventions really affected us when it seems that he is celebrating how those inventions came to be?
2) Could there have been as reason as to why he put the inventions in that specific order? How could he have done it differently?
Note: I noticed while reading that he didn’t put the inventions in the order that they were created in. Yes, most of them were created around the same time, but Johnson placed them in a seemingly random order.
3) Are there any other significant inventions he could have included in this book?
Note: Yes, it seems obvious that he could have covered more important inventions in the thousands upon thousands of them created, but are there really any more that are still around today that has such a deep affect on society where we still see it’s remains in our everyday lives?