Societies that master a decisive material technology outcompete those that do not
Evidence
Bronze Age communities that did not learn how to baptise iron perished, he insisted. … The swords of their ironclad enemies sliced through their bronze shields, their ploughs failed to cultivate the less fertile soils, the metal braces holding together their dams and temples were too weak to fulfil the ambitions of forward-thinking architects. In contrast, communities that mustered the techne, the art, of ‘steeling’ iron thrived in the fields, on the battlefields, at sea, in commerce, in the arts. Iron’s magic underpinned the new role of technology as the driving force that led to civilisation and its discontents. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 39
Categorization
- XREF: This sets up the Darwinian-style technological-determinism argument the book will presumably apply to platform capitalism: civilisations that fail to adopt the new dominant technology are overcome. — connects to: Societies only rise or fall when material conditions make it possible; Societies only undertake tasks whose material conditions are maturing; Buying technology does not make a society technologically advanced — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 1628 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Technological mastery of iron separated thriving from perished civilisations
#exemplifies(0.95) - Societies only rise or fall when material conditions make it possible
#qualifies(0.80) - Buying technology does not make a society technologically advanced
#expands(0.75) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1628 - Societies only undertake tasks whose material conditions are maturing
#qualifies(0.72)