Technologies that shaped the world

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hello everybody in our last episode we talked  about those lies that shaped the world   yes sometimes the lie can change the course of  history but it is something else performs as the   driven power of the developing of our world that  something is technology in today's episode we're   going to talk about those technologies that shaped  our world talking about technologies we first   think about things like smartphones robots and  spaceships stuff like that yes modern technology   are developing so fast and change our life so  dramatically however in some sense those older   technologies even ancient technologies that  we take for granted shaped our world even more   before we get into all that let's ask ourselves a  question what is the driven power of technologies   is it because we as humans are so hard working  is that why we invented all those awesome things   actually no bees are more hard working than us yet  they haven't developed any technology we developed   more and more technologies and invented more  and more things not because we're hard working   but exactly the opposite it's because we're  lazy we're too lazy to do things by ourselves   we invent something to do them for us well at  least to make it easier for us to get things done   that's the driven power of innovation the laziness  of mankind oh yes oh yeah that's the stuff do we dare we dare this first technology we're  going to talk about is something so simple   wheels what wheels did wheels change  our world that much yes they did   even without modern application of wheels like  automobiles wheels were still the technology   that made civilization possible and  we have video footage to prove that let's do a little bit math with the help of  one horse what's the difference of productivity   with and without wheels with a wheeled  carriage a horse on average can pull about   1.5 tons and travel about 4 miles per hour so to  move 1.5 tons of cargo to a destination 30 miles   from you you will need about 8 hours there and  8 hours back so 16 hours to complete the mission   one day's work now let's see how long it  will take you to achieve the same thing   without wheels without wheels means you will  have to load your cargo directly on the horse   how much weight can a horse carry and walk 4  miles per hour it's about one eighth of a ton   so in one day you can move one eighth of a  ton about 250 pounds and work the horse 16   hours 8 hours there and 8 hours back then rest the  horse for 8 hours you will have to work like this   for 12 days to move all 1.5 tons of  cargo to a destination 30 miles away   so in a simple transportation task without  the help of any modern technology but only   one horse wheels improves your productivity by 12  times not mentioning without wheels there won't be   cars trains or airplanes yes even airplanes don't  need wheels to fly they need wheels to take off   and land so it is safe to say without this  technology that we see every day and take it for   granted civilization won't be possible at least it  won't be in a large scale because to build a city   needs thousands and thousands tons of materials  transported wheel is such a great technology   however it is unclear who invented it because  the oldest wheels we found were used over 6000   years ago and the history of using wheels can be  much longer than that it is very possible that   different civilizations developed their wheels  independently so with wheels we could travel   wherever we want not really thousands of  years passed after wheels were invented   before we can actually travel long distance  without getting lost especially on open sea   no one said anything about cold i'm sure  there must be a good reason for us suffering   until another technology came to human  history compass yes without compass   we did travel there are other ways to tell  direction like using the position of the sun   and the stars however it is not a precise  navigation when you are in the middle of   open sea the farthest you can see is about  12 miles due to the curvature of the earth   let's see without compass you navigate with sun  first you need to know where exactly you're at   because at different coordinates you  actually observe the sun at a different angle   this is easy to understand just imagine  the sun is a light hanging from the ceiling   depends on your location in that room the  light might be on your left or on your right   but as long as you know precisely where you're  at you still can get the right direction also   you need to know the exact time of the day because  sun is at different direction throughout the day   now if you sail into the open sea and every day  your navigation is just 0.01 degree off the true 

direction the next day your reading will be  based on a location you are not actually at   the error accumulates every time you use this  method to navigate and you might end up missing   your target by one degree which doesn't sound  much it's just one degree let's see if you travel   a thousand miles what would one degree error  cause you to miss the destination based on the   law of cosines you will miss your target by 17.45  miles since the farthest you can see is 12 miles   when you're on the open water you just missed  your island totally what about cloudy days and   nights you cannot effectively navigate when  your ship is still traveling and drifting   that made long distance travel on open sea  impossible compass was actually invented between   second century bc and the 1st century a.d long  before we had the technology to build ships   big enough to travel across the ocean so when  our ocean ships were built and ready to sail   that was around 15th century which is known as  the age of discovery we were already masters of   compass using a tool that can continually tell  us the true north without compass continents   would be isolated by oceans and the world we know  today might have remained a mystery to this day   next piece of technology we're going to talk  about made spreading knowledge and education   in a large scale possible it is the invention  of paper paper was invented around 100 bc   but was not industrialized by tyron until 200  years later around 105 a.d in china before   paper was invented books were expensive and heavy  we wrote on wood clay bamboo parchment which is   prepared animal skin fabrics which made a book  weights a hundred pounds and worth a fortune of   course there were not so many books existed anyway  those materials were mainly used to document major   events and because of that education was very  much limited to a very small scale majority of the   human population was illiterate how about we take  a vote who thinks the kid should start studying   who doesn't well you just lost two to one no it's  a tie that guy doesn't count he can't even read   back then if you can read and write you  must be from noble family but actually   rate of illiteracy didn't really drop that  much even after paper was available for another   14 centuries even papers were available books  were still very rare humans were waiting for   another technology press printing which  was developed around 1440 in maints germany   gutenberg's machine improved on already  existing presses this assembly line   method of copying books enabled a single printing  press to create as many as 3600 pages per day   by the year of 1500 over a thousand gutenburg  presses were operating in europe and by 1600   they had created over 200 million new books  before industrialized press printing books were   mainly copied by hand no wonder so many people  lived their whole life without seeing one single book with abundant paper and press printing machines  another thing naturally appeared paper currency   which actually was used in china since the  9th century but didn't appear in europe   until late 1600s before paper currency  mainly precious metals were used as   currency well if you don't count shells and  other types of currency in even older times   metal coins actually has the real value even today  medals are still used like gold bars gold coins   or something more common quarters in theory  a quarter contains the amount of metal that   is worth a quarter today's quarter is made of  91.67 of copper and 8.33 of nickel before 1965  

the quarter was made out of silver because a  quarter was worth a lot more back then the reason   i say this is only in theory is because the value  of currency fluctuates but we can't really adjust   the metal composition of a quarter every day let's  go back to paper currency it appeared in europe   due to shortage of metal coins so banks started to  issue out paper notes which was like an official   iou which promised the equal amount of precious  metal in the future when it came available   so the bank doesn't have the coins now because  of the shortage but they gave you a piece of   paper saying you can come here later and get  the coins they owe you so you go to the farmer   to buy a cow paying the farmer with that  piece of banknote instead of real coins   because of the bank's credibility the farmer  doesn't have no problem accepting it because he   knows the piece of paper is just as good as real  coins that was the birth of paper currency later   on people would rather carry around some  paper money instead of 20 pounds of coins   paper currency changed the face of global economy   it was the first vital step to today's credit  card electronic banking and electronic currency   without paper currency today's global  economic system wouldn't be possible   there are a lot more old time technologies that  changed our world because the limit of our video   let's push the time forward a little which means  we're going to pass technologies like steam engine   which freed human from doing a lot of labor  work as well as making modern industrialization   possible also like technology to harness  electricity and invention of light bulb which made   social and productive activities possible after  sundown or more modern technologies like internet   and social media came with it made communication  worldwide became much more convenient   but this one technology i want to talk about  before i end this discussion is nuclear submarine   what that's random and how can nuclear  submarine be a greater technology than   computer or cars or rockets well yes all these  technologies you mentioned are great and all   but those technology didn't save the world all  the technologies we talked about today are great   without them our world would be totally  different but without nuclear submarine our world   wouldn't exist anymore after world war ii two  super powers united states and soviet russia   two nations with more and more nuclear bombs went  into cold war both nations had their crosshairs   locked on each other's land based and ship-based  nuclear bomb launching sites it came to a point   that whoever attacked first would be the winner  let's simplify it so we can see the picture better   in a football field there are two groups of  people and each group has 10 men holding a gun   aiming at the gun men of the other group but  all the gunman's location is fixed and exposed   they cannot dodge the coming bullets those  gun men are the land-based launching sites   also each side has several gunmen moving freely  but with their location still exposed so at any   given time they are targeted too those freely  moving gunman are those ship based launching   sites so even they can move freely their situation  is not much better here comes the problem even   each side doesn't really want to kill the  other side but the existence of the other   group puts them in great danger even both sides  have good hearts and they know to themselves   that they don't want to attack but how do  they know the other side won't attack first   even we know the other side won't attack how do  we know the other side know we won't attack them   and how do we know they know we know they won't attack first i know you're already confused   and have your finger on the trigger because in a  situation like this the only answer is to shoot   first because if our enemy attacks first all our  gunmen will be gone and we will be defenseless   just the fear itself will eventually  result in one side to pull the triggers   no matter they want to or not at that time  our world was in a situation like that   what they didn't know was that such large scale  of nuclear explosions would cause a decades-long   nuclear winter which would eventually  kill everybody yes they waved around   their new weapons without fully understanding the  consequences maybe they knew at the point but just   didn't have no other choice until nuclear submarine  came to the picture nuclear submarines are not   just submarines capable of launching nuclear  bomb also they are powered by nuclear engines   which allows them to stay underwater for as long  as four months so with multiple nuclear submarines   operating whoever is attacked first will be  capable to shoot back and destroy their enemy   united states has 71 nuclear submarines operating  somewhere in the ocean right now in our   football field scenario this means each side  has another 10 gunman moving around underground   who would not be detected at least not at  the same time this changed the game because   each side can only eliminate exposed targets  attacking first will not make them the winner   but committing suicide so the invention of  nuclear submarine created the new balance   of threat pulled both sides back from a verge of  nuclear warfare and saved mankind from extinction i know there are so many more great technologies  out there and it's not fair to not even mentioning   them i just picked a few that people don't  normally think too much

2021-01-11

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