Let me know what you personally think!
Please leave a comment and restack if you would please.
Imagine exploring on the above ship… Imagine the amount of pure raw courage that it takes to enter the environment of the Atlantic Ocean and cross it on a platform of wood and canvas. Think about that for a bit.
Why? Why did we decide to invent things?
For many years as early humans, we struggled, we struggled for very simple things, safety, security, sustenance. Back in those periods of our development many things we do not even see as an issue now, were most certainly a life and death thing. Food! The small village of maybe five families wondering if the hunter/gatherers had any luck finding an animal to eat, or berries, or flax or wheat to grind. Simple tools were invented by then simple men, (today we consider them simple, I would say then, whomever came up with the idea of bow and arrow was likely celebrated as a god). It was a job, it was not for fun, you hunted or you starved. Today we jump in the car and go to Albertsons. A good lot of folks buying those groceries have no idea where they even come from, how they are grown, processed, and put in their bags to take home to eat.
Home… oh well that’s another one, from living in a cave, sucking in campfire smoke, provided you had something dry to burn, the wind blowing in on you, wrapped in your dead animal and dry old grasses to stay warm, to well having a front door, heat and air conditioning, a refrigerator, a gas or electric stove, running water…
Oh Water, yes not having to devise some method of finding it, carrying it, storing it. Nope go home, turn on the tap and poof, magic! Simple things we all take for granted every single day of our lives.
There are parts of the world that life is as close to death every day of week still today. Even now as you read this on your smartphone, drinking your Starbucks, thinking, no, no one really lives hand to mouth anymore. In fact they do. Sadly, modern Western culture has folks who capitalize on that subsistence. Now before you get the notion that I am bashing on our ways and things, I most certainly am not. I am simply stating that there are some scum out there that make use of slavery even today.
There are many folks out there trying very hard to demonstrate, expose, prove, show, how the wonderful world of security we simple folks have is due to a couple things, Reliable energy supply and clean drinking water. You can not have the later without the first. With no energy supply, your faucet in your abode fails.
So why do we invent things? Is it curiosity? Is it investigating? Is it boredom? Some would say it is Curiosity. Possibly in some cases, that may be, I believe the desire to fly was just that, it was a dream coupled with curiosity of flight and an internal drive that man can do this. I believe that is what drove the Wright brothers and all those that tried, to do just that. It was not something that was in fact needed at the time to make life safer or better, it was literally, a “hold my beer and watch this” thing. I often wonder if they (the Wright brothers) could see what their wonderful invention has turned into would think today.
So yes curiosity, and more often, the desire to improve our lives. The plow share was not invented out of curiosity, it was invented to improve growing food. The Bow was not invented for sport, it was invented to improve hunting and self defense. It was not invented for war, it just so happens it made a huge difference in defense and offense. That was an aside, not the original intent. The same applies to spears, knives, and hammers. They were originally a utility. The same can actually be said for gun powder and lead. Imagine the difference of having to use an arrow to take a buck at 15 yards, to a musket ball at 75? What a glorious improvement. Yes I do know that today we have bows that can effectively take an animal at 100 yards or more. I am a bowhunter, I know that. 100 years ago the idea of bow being that effective is ridiculous on its face.
What great inventions in the last several hundreds of years actually though completely transformed life? What inventions where so key to development of life as we know it today, that if they had not happened you would not have a smart phone in your life, a solid house over your head, and a place for your children to learn in safe environment, and the ability to keep food in your house?
I am going to give some clues, and picture, but I really want your thoughts, I really want to know what everyone believes really turned the everyday struggle of life relying on whether Jed brought home a deer for dinner, to whether or not Jed forgot to stop at the store and grab a jug of Milk. What invention was that? Please post your thoughts, comments, and try to identify what is in the picture below.
Bonus points if you can name who designed it.
I was going to put together my next thoughts on Coal, but ran into a bit of writers block, and had to regroup, so I thought this would be fun.
Like, share, comment, thank you for taking the time to read. Spud.
That's the James Watt steam powered pump. Indirect reply, invention created communities. The guy who made the very special shaped arrow heads was good at it, and was maybe a better arrow head maker than a hunter. Because of his unique skill he could barter arrow heads for food and supplies for his family. His war arrows were particularly effective so the community protected him as their weapon source and he did not fight. As others became craftsmen the modern community was born.
👍 one Richard! Distilled. #CommonSense