Monday 18 August 2014

The IDIOTS Timeline of scientific discovery and a piano.




With a quiet day to write about I think it might be best to skip the basic details about sharpening axes, doing a little IT and pointing at the piano and saying those white keys are called notes and those pedals are the accelerator and brake. It appears most pianos are Automatics; well actually they are not only the electronic ones are in general, allowing you to get on with other stuff as they play away to their hearts content. It makes practicing so much easier. 

All this is a distraction because it was a quiet day and I have decided to consider the bigger picture of things or Science or in particular the frontiers of science.  Yes the frontiers of science do not progress in a linear way they sort of make sudden little skips and then fizzle out for a bit and then skip forward again. History shows us many of these little leaps and I think we should look closely at them.

Step one . . . . . . . Tools (3 million years ago)
This is where man parted from the other critters on the planet he started to use tools such as clubs, pointy things like sticks knifes and axes.  This was a seriously major step we still use all these tools to this day.

 Step two . . . . . . Boats (10,000 years)
Folk forget about boats but man would never have colonized the entire world without boats and they are still a key part of the global economy


Step three . . . . . . . Wheels (7 thousand years ago)
Man has always liked to move big heavy things about and it started with rollers and ropes but then some bright spark fixed the roller to the heavy thing and created transport. Where would we be today without transport, it is the backbone of almost everything.

Step four . . . . . .  Smelting (6 thousand years ago)
Yes the production of metals such as iron and Bronze are so critical to mankind that we even have an Iron Age and a Bronze Age and yet again without metals modern life would not exist.

Step five . . . . . . . Engines (1698)
The invention of the steam engine meant that us humans could do loads of stuff more than we could ever do by hand or using animals or slaves without the steam engine the industrial revolution would not have happened.  The steam engine sort of lead to the oil based engine and allowed us to make transport that could go anywhere.

Step six . . . . . . . . Electricity (1800)
Electricity took a while to get going but just look what happens when we have a power cut. . . . . Enough said.

Step Seven . . . . . . Electronics (1950)
This has led to the computer, the internet, my blog and all sorts of clever stuff as long as we still have electricity.


So that’s it that is everything covered and shows the key steps man has taken in the last three million years or so, If you think I have missed something important please let me know

12 comments:

  1. I think the invention of The Dog was pretty cool. I also like chocolate and the refrigerater, because they both have "ate" in them, my favorite thing.

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    1. I'm not entirely sure that the Dog is an invention, I think we could say chocolate is a bit dog like so may not count either. The refrigerator is in fact one of the heavy square items that early man used primitive wheels (rollers) to move about. Creating large circles of these strange heavy square items to predict the winter solstice when they would celebrate with chocolate and a roast dog . . .SORRY I mean a roast hog. . . .

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    2. I think the dog invented itself by saying, "I am currently a wolf, but I like hanging around these humans, they seem to always have food scraps laying around and my paws are tired and sore." So the wolf stopped howling at the moon as much and its w went away and that left (w)olf-> olf. The o & l of olf combined to make d while keeping the o intact and the intact o duplicated & combined with a rotated f (fo)-> to make a g, which lead to dog. So a dog is a sedentary wolf who likes campfires and humans and their food & affection.

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    3. Your picture today is amazingly wonderful.

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    4. I am sure you are right about the wolf as it explains why dogs go Woof, it is a reminder of their origins. Much in the sameway mankind goes around clubbing each other to death with sticks and the like.

      I cheated again with the picture and used one I have used before . . . . its a time thing at present. I could do with slightly more of it.....

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    5. I like the juxtaposition of the spear and bow tie.

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    6. You are very observant Mr ESB

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    7. It is an occupational hazard that sometimes gets me in trouble or at least semi-trouble, usuaLLy with some entertainment value as a result.

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  2. But you skipped the invention of Beer. Arguably, the invention of beer can be linked to humans adopting an agrarian lifestyle leading to actual civilization.
    Also, I always thought of the piano as a manual transmission, there's the gas, brake and clutch, no?

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    1. I did forget Beer but I dont drink alcohol so I think that may be the reason. Maybe I should have included Chemistry and then that would cover everything from Beer to Wizards potions.

      Our particular piano has no clutch although I have a Hammond Organ in the garage that helped the world of Prog-rock but now is more The Abominable Dr. Phibes it has pedals all over the place.

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  3. You forgot the day that Addman is invented. A truly historic moment for the history books.

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    1. Sorry Mr Addman you are entirely correct, a truly historical moment . . . . I remember it well?

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