Thinking about doing a parody of Allen, *The American Information Revolution in Global Perspective,* where I argue that computers were invented in the US because of high wages, cheap electricity, the supply of vacuum tubes, and the intense demand for military calculations in WW2
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(It would be something of a Rorschach test… to the extent that you think Allen's explanation for the Industrial Revolution makes sense, you might like that explanation for the computer!)
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And the thing is… it's not *wrong*. It's all true and makes sense. It's just… missing a lot of context. And I think it can't be the whole explanation, or even the primary explanation.
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What this is all referring to, in case you're lacking context:
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Robert Allen, in *The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective*, says demand factors have been underrated. He argues that many major inventions were adopted when and where factor prices made it profitable and a good investment to adopt them, and not before.
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I elaborated on this and added more thoughts here:
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Robert Allen's explanation for the Industrial Revolution is that Britain had high wages and cheap energy, which made it profitable for them to industrialize.
This doesn’t sit right with me. Here are some thoughts on why
rootsofprogress.org/reflections-on
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Are there any writers advancing an N Factor thesis for the Industrial Revolution?
"All of these factors helped, and it's hard to say which ones were specifically required to enable the Industrial Revolution"
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Well, see the Crafts synthesis, I mention and link to it in my book review. Also the post I linked to there
“It's hard to say” doesn't make for a very highly-cited journal paper though…
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I know this is a bit of a joke, but I do think a lot of modern advancements revolve around "planned" technological advances, where significant resources are put into developing tech because of some long term vision of value, not just to meet immediate demand.
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Afaik, the specific start of the industrial revolution was Britain's running out of wood for fuel, forcing coal mining, which precipitated the steam engine for water pumping. That it happened only then, only there, under such demand, seems to support Allen. Your thoughts?
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See this book review:
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In this essay I examine Allen’s argument and see what we can learn from it. First I summarize the core of his argument, then I discuss some responses and criticism and give my own thoughts:
rootsofprogress.org/robert-allen-b
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