I’ve been slowly getting The Ascent of Man DVDs from Netflix. The current disk in hand is Disk 3, with “Starry Messenger,” “Majestic Clockwork,” and “Drive for Power.” I watched “Starry Messenger” a few days ago, and the other two last night.
I really love the history of science and technology, especially that whole period between the Renaissance and the end of the 19th century. So these eps were guaranteed to hit my sweet spot. And they did, especially, “Drive for Power.” I can easily get down on industrialists, and this episode made me appreciate those guys a bit more. Bronowski does a good job of showing both sides — yeah, those guys pushed things that hurt a lot of people, but they also made advances that helped a lot of people, and often had a definite sense of social duty. And I liked his take on the horror of the factories, both human and environmental — it wasn’t new, as a behavior, just uglier because of scale. Old ideas of human relationships, and of human relationship to the environment, continued in the factories, and that was the disaster.
He also got me thinking about the inherent elitism found in focusing on aesthetics and fun over practicality. Not that aesthetics and fun don’t have a huge place, but those guys built things for the whole of society. The canals helped everyone. The result was, as he noted, a true social revolution.
Mostly, what I got out of these episodes is a reminder of a source of Wonder — Us. Humans. Think of the things Newton did, which such simple materials at hand. Think of Galileo, with even more limited equipment. And think of those crazy inventors and dreamers, who took invention out of the salons and into the world to make new and wonderful things. These were people who thought of new things and said, sure, why not, what the hell?! Let’s try it! And they did. A canal over a river? Yes! A steam engine? Yes!
Oh, we humans are amazing when we let ourselves be.
