The history and future of technology : can technology save humanity from extinction? / Robert U. Ayres.
Ayres, Robert U., author.
2021
T14.5 .A97 2021eb
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Title The history and future of technology : can technology save humanity from extinction? / Robert U. Ayres.
Author Ayres, Robert U., author.
ISBN 9783030713935 (electronic book)
3030713938 (electronic book)
9783030713928 (hardcover)
303071392X (hardcover)
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71393-5
Published Cham : Springer, [2021]
Copyright ©2021
Language English
Description 1 online resource (xviii, 830 pages) : illustrations (chiefly color)
Other Standard Identifiers 10.1007/978-3-030-71393-5 doi
Call Number T14.5 .A97 2021eb
Dewey Decimal Classification 303.48/3
Summary Eminent physicist and economist, Robert Ayres, examines the history of technology as a change agent in society, focusing on societal roots rather than technology as an autonomous, self-perpetuating phenomenon. With rare exceptions, technology is developed in response to societal needs that have evolutionary roots and causes. In our genus Homo, language evolved in response to a need for our ancestors to communicate, both in the moment, and to posterity. A band of hunters had no chance in competition with predators that were larger and faster without this type of organization, which eventually gave birth to writing and music. The steam engine did not leap fully formed from the brain of James Watt. It evolved from a need to pump water out of coal mines, driven by a need to burn coal instead of firewood, in turn due to deforestation. Later, the steam engine made machines and mechanization possible. Even quite simple machines increased human productivity by a factor of hundreds, if not thousands. That was the Industrial Revolution. If we count electricity and the automobile as a second industrial revolution, and the digital computer as the beginning of a third, the world is now on the cusp of a fourth revolution led by microbiology. These industrial revolutions have benefited many in the short term, but devastated the Earths ecosystems. Can technology save the human race from the catastrophic consequences of its past success? That is the question this book will try to answer.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references and index.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description Online resource; title from PDF title page (SpringerLink, viewed August 6, 2021).
Available in Other Form Print version: 9783030713928
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Intro
Preface
Acknowledgments
Contents
Part I: Before the Industrial Revolution
1: Introduction
2: Fire and Water: Technologies Extending Nature
2.1 Bipedalism: Down from the Trees
2.2 Pottery, Cooking, and Mobility
2.3 Keeping the Dark at Bay
2.4 Pain, Anesthesia, and Surgery
2.5 Water Management and Farming
2.6 Agriculture
2.7 Extensions of the Legs: Mobility and Transport
3: Extensions of the Body
3.1 From Skin to Fibers
3.2 From Fibers to Fabrics and Clothing
3.3 From Caves to Walls to Settlements

3.4 From Teeth and Claws to Bows and Arrows
3.5 Metallurgy
3.6 Firearms and Explosives
4: Words and Music
4.1 Cave Art
4.2 Writing and Stories
4.3 Tokens, Numbers, Ideographs, Pictographs, and Cuneiform
4.4 Logography: Shift from Visual to Aural
4.5 The Alphabet: Segmentation of Sounds
4.6 Musical Notation
4.7 Musical Instruments
4.8 From Numbers to Arithmetic And Algebra
5: Printing, Movable Type, and Books
5.1 Precursors of Paper
5.2 Gutenberg, Movable Type, and the Bible
5.3 The Protestant Reformation and the Rise of Knowledge

Part II: The Age of Fossile Fuels
6: The Enlightenment: The Rise of Science
6.1 Money and Credit
6.2 Universities and "Higher Learning"
6.3 Alchemy and Chemistry
6.4 Magnetism and Electricity
6.5 Philosophy and Astronomy
6.6 Entropy, Complexity, and the Universe as a "Heat Engine"
7: The First Stage of Industrialization: Coking and Canals (1712-1820)
7.1 Coking and Iron Smelting
7.2 Coal and Canals
7.3 Foundations of Chemistry
7.4 The Alkali Industry and Soap Making
7.5 Phosphorus and "Safety Matches"
7.6 Rubber

8: Machine Tools and Mechanization
8.1 Attaching Metals: Welding, Soldering and Brazing, Riveting
8.2 Screws, Machines, and Machine Tools
8.3 Ball Bearings and Roller Bearings
8.4 Printing Inventions
8.5 Clocks, Automata, and Watches
8.6 Locks and Keys
8.7 The Repeating Rifle and the Safety Pin
8.8 The Zipper Fastener
8.9 The Bicycle
9: The Triumph of Steam and Steel (1820-1876)
9.1 From a Pump to an Engine
9.2 Trevithick's High-Pressure Steam Engine
9.3 Mechanization of Textile Manufacturing
9.4 George Stephenson and the Railway Boom

9.5 The Hot Blast and Cheap Steel
10: Petroleum and Petrochemicals
10.1 Petroleum, the New "Black Gold"
10.2 Coal Gas for Streetlighting
10.3 Aniline Dyes
10.4 Synthetic Fibers: From Rayon to Orlon
10.5 Fertilizers and Nitrogen Fixation
10.6 Petroleum Refining Technology
11: Anesthesia, Surgery, and Modern Medicine
11.1 Anesthesia, Analgesics, and the Conquest of Pain
11.2 Antiseptics and Antibiotics
11.3 Immunology and Vaccines
11.4 Opiates and Drug Injection
11.5 Sulfa Drugs
12: Mobility: From Rails to Roads to Space Travel

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