[Gorgiass]

(09-16-2015 01:25 PM)Bad Hussar Wrote:  

There's actually a good TED talk (I think by Mat Ridley) about how no single person in the world actually knows how to make... pretty much anything at all. The example he used was a computer mouse. There's a whole host of knowledge required and legions of people needed to construct even the simplest modern object.

The original essay, as far as I know, was about a pencil. The PC was but a glimmer in Steve Job's eye - http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html

Quote:

And I can teach this lesson better than can an automobile or an airplane or a mechanical dishwasher because—well, because I am seemingly so simple.

Simple? Yet, not a single person on the face of this earth knows how to make me.

(09-16-2015 01:25 PM)Bad Hussar Wrote:  

So we can all be thankful to the creative and productive people and forces in the world who make modernity and this life of ours possible.

Amen. We all wax nostalgic once in a while but forget that the reason modern life is the way it is, is because thousands of generations have sweated and bled to make maximize their descendant's gratification while minimizing the effort necessary to achieve it. All the more reason to reflect on our instant gratifications with gratitude once in a while.