Chapter 9
THE CUTTING EDGE OF TECHNOLOGY Marco Savioli
西昌The cutting edge of technology生物学科核心素养
«Cutting edge technology»: new techniques that are just moving out of development and into production. Cutting edge technologies hold great promi for higher productivity, although they are not guaranteed to work (eg quantum computing, gene therapy, …)
With time, technologies that are at the cutting edge become commonplace or even obsolete
The era of rapid technological progress dates back only250 years in the most advanced countries. Before this period, technological advance was slow and sporadic. Even today, waves of progress alternate with periods of slack technoligical changeMSX
the 18th century
Focus on Europe: not only it is the area for which the best data are available but also it had become the world’s
背上行囊
technology leader by 1700
Growth accounting for such an early period pos problems. The avalable data are quite spar. Land (X) played an important role as an input then
Y=AXβL1−β
y=A X
L
β
→LADS→y=A+βX−βL
Considering a geographical area of constant size: X=0
A=y+βL
the 18th century
To calculate the growth rate of productivity A we need data on the growth rates of income per capita and the size of the population
In preindustrial economies the share of national income paid to land owners was one-third: β=13假声怎么唱>森林防火工作
Table 9.1 Growth Accounting for Europe,
A.D. 500–1700
500-1500: the Malthusian model of population fit Europe well
1500-1700: growth rate of productivity was five times as high but extremely slow in comparison to what we e in the world today
The industrial revolution
后周The most significant turning point in the history of technological progress, generally dated1760-1830 in Britain, spreading somewhat later to continental Europe and North America
Business began to mechanize production in ways that would allow the transfer of tasks performed by skilled artisans to machines working faster and tirelessly形容少年的句子
Textiles: innovations in the manufacture of textiles, particularly cotton; a wave of new inventions in spinning, weaving, and printing fabric; as a conquence, the u of underwear became common for the first time
