Crowdfunding a transcontinental railroad in 1857
Crowdfunding a transcontinental railroad in 1857
Tomorrow: Noor Siddiqui, former Thiel fellow and founder of Orchid Bioscience
The Torch of Progress, Episode 7
Tomorrow (Wednesday) at 12 noon Pacific I'm interviewing Noor Siddiqui, founder & CEO of Orchid Bioscience and co-founder of the Stanford Center for Distributed Trust. We'll be talking about her unconventional educational path, what she learned from doing a Thiel fellowship, and opportunities for genetics to improve fertility and reproductive health.
Free and open to all, info & registration here.
Other upcoming events (all at 10am Pacific time):
July 22: Anton Howes, author of Arts and Minds: How the Royal Society of Arts Changed a Nation
July 29: Danica Remy, president of the Asteroid Institute, on “Astronauts, Asteroids, Astrophysicists and Rock Stars”
August 19: Laura Mazer, Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Michigan
Video: Joel Mokyr, “Attitudes, Aptitudes, and Progress: How the Modern Age Got Started”
The Torch of Progress, Episode 6
Joel Mokyr gave a talk for the sixth episode of “The Torch of Progress”, on the “attitudes and aptitudes” that enabled the Industrial Revolution.
For “attitudes”, he listed three significant examples: skepticism (of received wisdom), openness to new ideas (including from other cultures), and “neophilia”, the love of the new. For aptitudes, he stressed the importance of workmanship and materials: “The difference between Leonardo and Watt / Was that Watt had Wilkinson and Leonardo did not.”
In the Q&A I got to ask him something I'd been wondering ever since I read A Culture of Growth: How did Europeans maintain their enthusiasm for the Baconian program for 200 years while seeing very little in the way of practical results?
Audio/podcast version available on SoundCloud.
Crowdfunding a transcontinental railroad in 1857
I recently came across a fascinating historical document: an 1857 pamphlet outlining a plan to build the US transcontinental railroad.
An aspect of the plan that struck me was its proposal for how to fund the railroad, which was simultaneously capitalist and democratic. It essentially advocated a broad-based, public-spirited, crowdfunding campaign.
Read the post: https://rootsofprogress.org/crowdfunding-a-transcontinental-railroad-in-1857
Next class Progress Studies for Young Scholars starts July 20, apply today
“One of the best and most rewarding learning experiences I’ve ever had.” –Juan David C.
“I learned so much about the history of technology and how I can take part in the future of progress.” –Ellen K.
“The highlight of my summer.” –Julia S.
Those are students from the first class of Progress Studies for Young Scholars, my online summer program in the history of technology for high schoolers. Apply today for the next class, starting July 20! Scholarships are available—if you need financial aid, mention it on your application: