The article opens with a great line that really sets the stage for the whole "Universal Tech Tree" idea: "When we try and pick out any technology in isolation, we find it hitched, in some way, to every innovation that preceded it."
That really resonates with me. It’s like trying to isolate a single root in a massive banyan tree – impossible! Every new tool or technique we develop isn't just born in a vacuum; it’s built on the shoulders of giants, as they say. Or, to keep with the tree metaphor, it's nourished by the nutrients and structure provided by all the growth before it. It’s a very organic way of looking at progress, far more accurate than the typical linear 'invention A led to invention B' timelines we sometimes see. It also makes you wonder about the butterfly effect in technology – how a seemingly small 'hitch' in the past could have profoundly altered the entire tech tree's future branches
Yeah, but I feel like there are sort of "substantial" and "accidental" dependencies to any invention. The example he gives of photography being dependent on firearms seem more of the "accidental" kind. Photography could have still existed without those influences, but the form may have been slightly different. The key thing was actually the silver chemistry and optics.
I think one can make a similar argument that Generative AI, for example was dependent on 3D video games, but that seems sort of contingent, and in another universe it could have happened in the opposite order.
That really resonates with me. It’s like trying to isolate a single root in a massive banyan tree – impossible! Every new tool or technique we develop isn't just born in a vacuum; it’s built on the shoulders of giants, as they say. Or, to keep with the tree metaphor, it's nourished by the nutrients and structure provided by all the growth before it. It’s a very organic way of looking at progress, far more accurate than the typical linear 'invention A led to invention B' timelines we sometimes see. It also makes you wonder about the butterfly effect in technology – how a seemingly small 'hitch' in the past could have profoundly altered the entire tech tree's future branches