Smart Things

Chapter 1 Introduction

The middle of Moore’s law

The history of technology is a history of unintended consequences, of revolutions that never happened, and of unforeseen disruptions. Take railroads, for instance. In addition to quickly moving things and people around, railroads brought a profound philosophical crisis of timekeeping. Before railroads, clock time followed the sun. “Noon” was when the sun was directly above, and local clock time was approximate. This was accurate enough for travel on horseback or foot, but setting clocks by the sun proved insufficient to synchronize railroad schedules. One town’s noon would be a neighboring town’s 12:02, and a distant town’s 12:36. Trains traveled fast enough that these small changes added up. ...