Technological Innovation (the series)

One of the most important factors in how progress works in our daily lives.

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As of this article’s publication date, I have been writing on Substack for about 1.5 years. During that time, I have written just over 400 articles on many topics. In contrast to the vast majority of Substack columns, almost all my articles are tied together by a common theme: human material progress:

• what it is,

• how it has transformed our lives (largely for the better)

• when and where it started

• what causes progress and how progress works in our daily lives.

To make it easier for new readers to get into my writing, I am publishing a series of “Table of Contents” articles over the coming weeks. Each will consist of a sequential list of articles on a specific sub-topic related to human material progress. I try to make each article self-standing, but I would recommend reading the articles in the displayed order.

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The series covered in this article is about Technology and Technological Innovation. Compared to other Progress Studies researchers, I write less about these topics as a percentage of my total writing, not because I think the topic is unimportant but because:

• While Technological Innovation is one of the most important causes of how progress works in our daily lives, it is not the only one and other researchers neglect those other factors.

• My beliefs on Technology and Technological Innovation do not differ greatly from other researchers, particularly W. Brian Arthur (see below).

• I have a much stronger background in other causes of human material progress, so it makes sense for me to focus my writing on those domains.

Nonetheless, I have a significant number of articles, videos, podcasts, and book summaries that will be of interest to Tech aficionados.

Enjoy reading!

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Table of Contents for the “Technological Innovation” series:

1. Understanding technology, innovation, and why they are important:

   1. Understanding Technological Innovation

   2. Technological Innovation is like solving a jigsaw puzzle

   3. Book review of "The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves" by W. Brian Arthur (what I believe is the best theory of technology available)

      1. Podcast version

      2. Video version

      3. Longer written summary on my library of online book summaries.

   4. Why I am a Techno-Realist

   5. My response to the Techno-Optimist Manifesto

2. How technology interacts with other causes of material progress:

   1. Understanding how progress works (a key article on my theory on the causes of human material progress)

   2. Technology is useless without the skills to use it

   3. Organizations allow humans to cooperate at a higher scale

   4. All of human history in one graphic

3. Innovation Prizes can accelerate technological innovation

4. Articles on specific technologies:

   1. Top 10 Technological Innovations of the 19th Century (video)

   2. A series of articles on Energy technologies. (coming soon)

   3. A series of articles on Agricultural technologies. (coming soon)

5. Book summaries on my library of online book summaries:

   1. Summaries of the best books about Technology and more here.

   2. Summaries of the best books about Innovation and more here.

   3. Summaries of books about Digital Technology.

   4. Summaries of academic articles about Diffusion of Technologies.

6. more articles on this topic

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If you enjoyed reading this series of articles, you might also be interested in reading my “From Poverty to Progress” book series: