Page 165 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol III

984 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

improve what they do, rather than experience techno- nology are a better understanding of energy through the
logical progress as a more or less incidental byproduct of laws of thermodynamics (discovered in the middle of the
normal activity. Governments and other public agencies nineteenth century), the understanding and control of
have increasingly realized that human capital formation electricity, and the discovery of the electron and the uti-
and innovation deserve and need public support. A lit- lization of electronics. The germ theory of disease revo-
erate and numerate population has both higher levels of lutionized medicine (and food processing). Routinization
competence and the intellectual ability to unlearn known led to mechanization, and mechanization to automation.
techniques and relearn new ones as the technology Some changes in industrial technology, however, relied
around them changes. more on better organization and coordination than on
But above all, modern economies are more innovative revolutionary insights from physics: Mass production,
because society as a whole controls more knowledge. It interchangeable parts, continuous flow processes, and
is doubtful that as individuals people today are much the rise of the modern factory are all part and parcel of
more intelligent than in the time of St. Augustine, but it the deep changes in mankind’s use of technology.
can hardly be disputed that collectively we know more. The culture and technology of information storage
Our understanding of the physical processes that under- and transmission and the rise of competitive markets and
lie every industrial technique has increased at an accel- global networks of information have ensured that the peo-
erating rate since Antoine Lavoisier published his Traité ple who need to access pools of information and data
Elementaire de Chimie on the eve of the French Revolu- banks can do so at low cost. The creation of new tech-
tion. Some of the best examples of major knowledge nology and the growth of the underlying scientific knowl-
breakthroughs that have revolutionized industrial tech- edge that constitutes its epistemic base have mutually

Center of
industrial
development
Baltic Sea Moscow 0 300 km
0
300 mi
North
Sea

London Amsterdam Berlin Warsaw
Antwerp
Cologne Dresden
Frankfurt
Atlantic Prague
Paris
Ocean Vienna
Nantes Munich
Lyons
Milan
Genoa
Black Sea
Rome
Madrid
N Naples

Mediterranean Sea
INDUSTRIAL CENTERS
of EUROPE at 1850