This episode originally aired in February of 2016.
From the original show notes: “This week, we take at the Law of Accelerating Returns, or the exponential explosion of information over the centuries. It’s a big topic and we just skim the surface of a fascinating area of study, beginning with the development of language, to the invention of the printing press, to today’s portable microcomputers. Things are a bit topsy-turvy this week, so apologies for the abbreviated length of this episode (kind of ironic considering the subject matter). Not only is it about half our usual run time, but most of the “media” references showed up at the end as we thought of more and more things to add.”
Links:
Battle of Olustee (1864)
Panama–Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco (1915)
Some Remarks: Essays and Other Writing, Neal Stephenson. Great essays, some of which deal with the increasing ease and cheapness of information access these days.
“Library Creatures”, an anthology of short fiction benefitting the Tom Burnett Public Library.
The Law of Accelerating Returns by Ray Kurzweil
To the Dustbin of History , Gary North (lewrockwell.com)
The History of Paper (silk-road.com)
The Space Show (podcast) Tue, 02/16/2016 | Dr. John Brandenburg
Hand Weapons of World War One: Knife, Club, & Spade
Gordon yanking the lanyard on the French 75 at San Juan Hill (aka Bandera, TX) Rough Riders (TV Movie 1997) (imdb.com)
Nancy’s first background (extra) job: dead Cuban girl (not historical). Tom Berenger (as TR) couldn’t figure out the point of this moment, either. Rough Riders (1997) (youtube.com)
