Reddit reviews How We Got Here: A Slightly Irreverent History of Technology and Markets
We found 2 Reddit comments about How We Got Here: A Slightly Irreverent History of Technology and Markets. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
http://www.amazon.com/How-Got-Here-Irreverent-Technology/dp/0060840978/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1249662190&sr=8-1
Awesome book. And yes, many (if not most) major technological advances in the last hojillion years were related to warfare in some way or another. That doesn't mean that war is awesome, what it means is that war provides impetus to pursue very specific problems with urgency and immediacy with as many resources as can be mustered on pain of death/defeat. The solutions to the problems must be refined and implementable. They have to work. They can't just be theory. Academic papers about relativity are nice, but you can't drop them on your enemies. This means that war drives technological advancement far more than any other societal phenomenon. Does this mean that because I love the internet and jet planes and microwaves and CD's (laser beams) that I love war? No. But you cannot deny where those things came from.
I also recommend How We Got Here: A Slightly Irreverent History of Technology and Markets. I believe it is also available legally for free How We Got Here(pdf).