The Gifts of Athena
Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy
by Joel Mokyr · first published 2002
67% recommend33% neutral
"The growth of technological and scientific knowledge in the past two centuries has been the overriding dynamic element in the economic and social history of the world. Its result is now often called the knowledge economy. But what are the historical origins of this revolution and what have been its mechanisms? In The Gifts of Athena, Joel Mokyr constructs an original framework to analyze the concept of "useful" knowledge. He argues that the growth explosion in the modern West in the past two centuries was driven not just by the appearance of new technological ideas but also by the improved a
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…technology ecosystems. That being said, here are six technology historians I have found very insightful: Donald Cardwell in "Turning Points in Western Technology" Joel Mokyr in "Lever of Riches" and "Gifts of Athena" Edward Hutchinson in "Cognition in the Wild" James Utterback "Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation" David A. Mindell "Between Human and Machine: Feedback, Control, and Computing before Cybernetics"…
on “We Need a New Science of Progress” ↗…currently, and Pax Americana more generally, are extremely rare in the history. [1] Joel Moker's Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress. I'd also highly recommend Moker's "The Gifts of Athena"
on “SpaceX installed 29 Raptor engines on a Super Heavy rocket last night” ↗…of economic history texts edited by Joel Mokyr (the Princeton Economic History of the World), notably Pomeranz, The Great Divergence, Clark's A Farewell to Alms, and Mokyr's on (not part of the series) Gifts of Athena, A Culture of Growth, The British Industrial Revolution, and Lever of Riches. The question of "why Europe and not China?" is literally The Needham Question, which occupied British sinologist Joseph Needham…
on “How Scientists Got Climate Change So Wrong” ↗…trajectory of growth in the US over that period. (There are far more books in the series, and I've read only a small fraction. Numerous other titles look highly promising.) There's Joel Mokyr's own The Gifts of Athena: <https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691120133/th...> R.U. Ayres (Robert) has written a number of articles and essays looking at technological development which are IMO highly underrated.…
on “Ask HN: What Are Some Good Books on the First Industrial Revolution?” ↗