- cross-posted to:
- futurology
- cross-posted to:
- futurology
I am reading The New Wave, the last book from Microsoft AI CEO Suleyman. He mentioned that a massive study pegged down the General Purpose Technologies to be only 24 in human history, but I can’t find the study. Does anybody know the study? This is the list btw:
- Domestication of plants
- Domestication of animals
- Smelting of ore
- Money
- Wheel
- Writing
- Bronze
- Iron
- Water wheel
- Three-masted sailing ship
- Printing
- Factory system
- Steam Engine
- Railways
- Steamship
- Internal combustion engine
- Electricity
- Automobile
- Airplane
- Mass production
- Computer
- Lean production
- Internet
- Biotechnology
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I feel like there needs to be some kind of criteria to make a complete list. Why not plastics? Why just the Internet and not telephony… or possibly the most general-purpose technology of the last century, radio transmission? What about timekeeping?
AND we have AI, the ultimate meta-technology… the real question is how many further general-purpose technologies it can unlock in turn.
I’m highly skeptical of claims like this, they seem to be more marketing hype than anything else. How is it “the ultimate”? Is it more important than smelting or electricity? We don’t even have artificial intelligence, we have algorithms that take advantage of highly powerful computers to work faster than they did in the past.
Yeah, radio transmission being missing is wild. That’s how Mussolini got famous to begin with, he was a radio guy. Let alone all the uses of various modern radio technologies.
it is AI, ai just isn’t that good. we don’t have AGI. they are not the same thing, it’s like rectangles and squares.
No refrigeration no right to speak
I wouldn’t be surprised if this list turned out to be generated by AI.
It’s terrible. 3 mast ships but no boats?
Steam engine turns up 3 times as steam engine, railways, and steam ship.
Mass production isn’t even a technology, it’s a process. Biotechnology is a field not a technology.
The distinctions and categories being drawn here seem arbitrary. You could make this kind of list a thousand different ways.
Lean production isn’t a general purpose technology, it’s also a scam to sell certifications.
This list is missing math.
What do you mean lean production is a scam?? Where am i gonna get my lean to get fucked up! 🥴
I dont know what study it is or how they define general purpose technologies. But i do miss a few world changing discoveries in that list. Like modern medicine/vaccines and radio/telecommunications. Although that last one might fall under electricity? Though I feel like it should be it’s own thing.
It kinda feels like a subjective arbitrary list
