William Rosen On Jon Stewart: The Most Powerful Invention Ever (VIDEO)

Historian and author William Rosen spoke to Jon Stewart last night about his new book, "The Most Powerful Idea in the World." In the book, Rosen says that the most powerful invention is the steam engine, and not just because the steam engine has actually been around since the 1st century AD. The steam engine marked both the birth of the industrial revolution in England, as well as the beginning of an "era of sustained technological innovation." The steam engine didn't actually function in 1st century Egypt; it took a series of small improvements to get the engine to function.

The steam engine, and the industrial revolution as a whole, sparked the concept that "ideas can be yours," which "opened the floodgates," Rosen said. Ownership of ideas (and the highly-publicized fights for ownership in today's world) all started in the 18th century, according to Rosen, and "The Most Powerful Idea in the World" traces how the concept started. Stewart quipped that readers should pick up the book "if you like reading about... industrialization." According to Rosen, however, you should read the book if you want to learn about the birth of invention and how it has shaped our society.

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Comments

[David Durham]

12:50 PM on 07/28/2010

I wonder where he'd place the printing press on a scale of important ideas. Consider; China was a much more culturally robust society than anything in the west after the fall of Rome, taking the 478 AD dating of the event (roughly), until the invention of the printing press. China stuck with their block-printing, which while much better than the written word, wasn't as efficient as the printing press for disseminating information, and it fell behind the west culturally. Just a question.

[Crofton]

02:49 PM on 07/28/2010

What he'd say (I am he; the screen name "Crofton" was/is a steam engine allusion) is that the printing press is more comparable to the steam engine than to the idea behind the steam engine...and is definitely a top ten in history invention. However, I'm not persuaded that moveable type was the biggest hurdle for China; after all, in 1700, there were more literate Chinese than the entire population of Britain, France, Germany, and Italy combined. Joseph Needham spent a lifetime demonstrating just how close China got to a working steam engine, without quite getting there. To me, the most persuasive answer is the lack, in China, of a competitive market for technology, and the consequent inability to sustain innovation. In brief, Chinese inventors lacked a feedback loop from customers that told them whether a particular innovation was cost-effective. Sustained innovation is incremental, and the real "most powerful idea" is the one that rewarded the sort of small improvements that profited consumers of technology in a measurable way. The steam engine, because it used fuel to do work, also valued micro-inventions (valves, condensers, linkages) that did the same work with less fuel.

[Bellanova]

12:29 AM on 07/28/2010

This is neither here nor there -- and I don't say things like that often -- but William Rosen is, well, hot. That charming, semi-wicked smile, and deadpan humor -- ouch.

[Tremonius]

08:07 PM on 07/27/2010

It's all in the labeling.

Nuclear reactors are essentially steam engines, correct?

Oh, think how all our energy troubles would be over had someone the foresight to simply remove the incendiary badge of clean energy.

[Angie Cordeiro]

01:26 PM on 07/27/2010

Yes!
Engineers, artists, scientists, your time has come;
banks, lawyers, politicians.... I would suggest a course in permaculture :-0