How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World
What was the chain of unexpected connections that led from the search for clean water to the manufacture of computer chips? And how did the overheating of printing presses in the U.S. inspire mass migration and political transformation? How We Got to Now, explores the history of innovation over centuries, tracing facets of modern life (refrigeration, clocks, and eyeglass lenses, to name a few) from their creation by amateurs and entrepreneurs to their unintended historical consequences. This illustrated history is full of surprising stories of accidental genius and brilliant mistakes—from the French publisher who invented the phonograph before Edison but forgot to include a playback feature, to the Hollywood movie star who helped invent the technology behind Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. How We Got to Now investigates the secret history behind the everyday objects of contemporary life.
Speaker Details
Steven Johnson is the author of seven bestselling books, including Where Good Ideas Come From, The Invention of Air, The Ghost Map, and Everything Bad Is Good for You, and is the editor of the anthology The Innovator’s Cookbook. He is the founder of a variety of influential websites—most recently, outside.in—and writes for Time, Wired, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He was the cofounder and editor-in-chief of FEED, the pioneering web magazine blending technology, science and culture. Newsweek named him one of the “Fifty People Who Matter Most on the Internet.”
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- Speakers:
- Steven Johnson
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Jeff Running
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