Extraordinary Ordinary Objects

Big Picture Science

Science, Technology

4.6 • 986 Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2023

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“To live is to count and to count is to calculate.” But before we plugged in the computer to express this ethos, we pulled out the pocket calculator. It became a monarch of mathematics that sparked a computing revolution. But it’s not the only deceptively modest innovation that changed how we work and live. Find out how sewing a scrap of fabric into clothing helped define private life and how adding lines to paper helped build an Empire. Plus, does every invention entail irrevocable cultural loss? Guests: Keith Houston – author of “Empire of the Sum: The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator.” Hannah Carlson – teaches dress history and material culture at the Rhode Island School of Design, author of “Pockets: An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close.” Dominic Riley – bookbinder in the U.K. Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast.
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0:36.0	The world is constantly changing and transforming.
0:39.0	Cut through some of the noise with What's New With Wired.
0:42.0	A podcast that goes in depth on the latest
0:44.9	news and technology and culture. Their award-winning journalism will help you make
0:49.6	sense of what's happening in the world. Listen to What's New with Wired wherever you get your podcasts.
0:55.8	That's What's New with Wired, wherever you get your podcasts. We are intrigued by new technology, inventions that can and do change the world, such as the
1:16.4	printing press, the internal combustion engine, and of course artificial intelligence. These are developments by which we frequently mark humanity's progress.
1:27.0	However, in this episode, we want to do something different to look at simple objects so deceptively modest that they seldom elicit more
1:36.0	than a shrug and a so what? Nevertheless, when they were invented, each created a revolution by changing how we work, do business, or go about
1:46.3	our lives.
1:47.3	This is Big Picture Science from the SETI Institute.
1:49.8	I'm Molly Bentley in this episode, how the calculator ignited the computer age, how
1:55.1	sewing a bit of fabric into clothing became a defining moment for women's
1:59.3	independence and how lined paper helped build an empire.
	...

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