The most powerful idea in the world
by William Rosen · first published 2010
100% recommend
Why HN recommends it
Narrative history of the steam engine that uses its development to examine how patents and invention drove the Industrial Revolution; suited to readers of technology history and the economics of innovation.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"In The Most Powerful Idea in the World, William Rosen tells the story of the men responsible for the Industrial Revolution and the machine that drove it?the steam engine. In the process he tackles the question that has obsessed historians ever since: What made eighteenth-century Britain such fertile soil for inventors? Rosen?s answer focuses on a simple notion that had become enshrined in British law the century before: that people had the right to own and profit from their ideas" --Cover, p. 2.
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I read The Most Powerful Idea in the World by William Rosen last year and really enjoyed it. Ostensibly its about the steam engine, but the idea referenced in the title is really patents.
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books on the history of ideas and inventions?” ↗You might be interested in the book "The most Powerful Idea in the World" by William Rosen. It's common to point to technological advancements such as steam which gave way to the Industrial Revolution, that Britain had coal etc. And that's definitely important because steam…
on “Nuclear fusion on brink of being realised, say MIT scientists” ↗tangent: if anyone wants to read a good non-fiction book about the history of steam, invention, the patent system, etc -- i can recommend William Rosen's book "The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention"
on “Google's PageRank patent has expired” ↗…article reminds me of Bill Gate's emphasis on measuring outcomes - here's a quote from the Gates Foundation 2013 letter [1]: -------------- Begin Gates Quote --------------- Over the holidays I read The Most Powerful Idea in the World, a brilliant chronicle by William Rosen of the many innovations it took to harness steam power. Among the most important were a new way to measure the energy output of engines and a micrometer dubbed…
on “Should Surgeons Keep Score?” ↗There's a decent book on the history of steam engines called "The Most Powerful Idea in the World" which answers the question fairly convincingly.
on “The myth of inevitable technological progress” ↗I tend to agree with your takeaway, but I want to pick a nit on your point about great art being made without copyright. "The Most Powerful Idea in the World" basically makes the case that intellectual property is what enabled the Industrial Revolution. I won't try to summarize or defend the entire thing here, but I think it makes a very compelling case that…
on “Open-Sora does pretty good video generation on consumer GPUs” ↗