open and closed ended questions

The writing on the Phaistos disk is thought to have been written around 1700 B.C., making it the world's oldest printed text. The words on it were not engraved by hand but rather printed by a printer with 45 stamps. Whoever writes on the disk had to have written a lot.
Manhattan Project with the explicit goal of
inventing the technology required to build an atomic bomb before Nazi
Germany could do so.
Eli Whitney's 1794 invention of his cotton gin to replace laborious hand

cleaning of cotton grown in the U.S.

South, and James Watt's 1769 invention

of his steam engine to solve the problem of pumping water out of

British coal mines.

3. According to Jared Diamond, what are the 2 factors that made the inventions developed?

Neccesity and curiosity.

4. What are the examples of inventions that represent the phrase ‘inventions are often the mother of necessity, rather than vice versa.’

airplane and automobile. Electric light bulb, Thomas Edison’s Phonograph etc.

5. What are the 3 factors that hinder the inventions to adopt in its society?

relative economic advantage compared with existing technology, social value and prestige, and compatibility with vested interests

6. Why has QWERTY keyboards still been used even though it is clearly proved to be inefficient?

This is because the idea of a QWERTY keyboard was so solidly entrenched in people that it was hard to change them.

7. What are the 14 explanatory factors that affect the receptivity among societies arise?

1.long life expectancy,

The availability of cheap slave labor in classical times

Patents and other property laws

Modern society in favor of technical training while the medieval Islam doesn’t.

Modern capitalism organized in a way to rewarding to invest in technological advances unlike the ancient roman economy.

The individualism of the U.S society where inventors keep earnings to themselves while inn countries like New Guinea, many relatives move in and are expected to be fed and supported.

Risk-taking behavior in invention being wide spread in some societies.

The scientific outlook is a unique feature of post-Renaissance European society that has contributed heavily to its modern technological preeminence.

Tolerance for diverse views.

Compatibility of religion and technology (Judaism and Christianity are compatible with some parts of technology, while Islam and Brahmanism don’t agree with some parts.

Throughout history, war has often been a leading stimulant of technological Innovations.

Strong centralized

government boosted technology in late-19th-century Germany and Japan.

Many northern Europeans

assume that technology thrives in a rigorous climate where survival is

impossible without technology, and withers in a benign climate where

clothing is unnecessary and bananas supposedly fall off the trees. An opposite

view is that benign environments leave people free from the constant

struggle for existence, free to devote themselves to innovation

and crushed it in China after A.D. 1500.

What are the 4 factors out of 14 factors which affect the receptivity among societies arise that appear to act inconsistently? war, centralized government,

climate, and resource abundance

Open ended questions.

Do you buy the Jared Diamond’s content “All recognized famous inventors had capable

predecessors and successors and made their improvements at a time when society was capable of using their product”?

yes. I believe that Jared has clearly made his case and proved beyond reasonable doubt that all the inventors have a “a template” which can be models, designs, or ideas that were not implemented and hence when improved, they receive the commercial success and recognition.

2. Jared Diamond said that “The availability of cheap slave labor in classical times supposedly discouraged innovation then, whereas high wages or labor scarcity now stimulates the search for technological solution.”

I also agree with Jared on the fact that the availability of labour has a part to play in limiting inventions. From economics basics, increase in price reduces the demand and hence the output. To maintain the output, which in this case is the productivity of the workers, a way to get the same output is to innovate new ways to achieve the output. This leads to inventions.

Based on “Decision Fatigue”, wouldn’t it be more likely that rich people (people who had the availability of cheap slave labor) would have had more chances to invent new technology or items in the past. What made the difference between back then and now?

No. Necessity is the mother of invention. The difference is that, then, the rich were in their own class and loss of the wealth seldom happened. They did not need to invent anything while the slaves would do all the work. Nowadays, their wealth is at the mercy of the stocks or people who can end it in a second. The wealthy hence need more wealth to have a diversified portfolio.

3. Jared Diamond said that “Patents and other property laws, protecting ownership rights of inventors, reward innovation in the modern West, while the lack of such protections discourages it in modern China.”

In Jared’s words, “From a patent lawyer's perspective, the ideal invention is

one that arises without any precursors”. Most investors want the endorsements, the fame and the prestigious title of being the first person to invent something. This makes the patent law a drive to innovate and hence it will reward innovation and when missing, discourage innovation.

























Work cited

Diamond, Jared M. Guns, germs, and steel: the fates of human societies New York:

W.W. Norton & Co., 1997. Print.