Jefferson and Technology
Not much happened on my vacation that would be relevant to Transhumanism. Unfortunately, we didn't make it to Kitty Hawk, we'll save that for next year. However, I did visit Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson. He designed his house himself and had numerous inventions and curiosities. He was a voracious reader and had a device for holding 5 open books at once which he likely designed (here). Imagine a President today inventing gadgets in his spare time.
Our technology is so complex and specialized that ordinary people can't really contribute to technology like they used to be able to. In many ways, we are less technology-oriented today in the sense that we don't understand our technologies and don't need to. People living in Jefferson's time had an intimate understanding of how things work and would actively make alterations. We, however, live in a kind of techno-womb, sheltered from technology yet entirely dependent upon it.
Our technology is so complex and specialized that ordinary people can't really contribute to technology like they used to be able to. In many ways, we are less technology-oriented today in the sense that we don't understand our technologies and don't need to. People living in Jefferson's time had an intimate understanding of how things work and would actively make alterations. We, however, live in a kind of techno-womb, sheltered from technology yet entirely dependent upon it.
The state of patent law has also played a big role in the decline of the amateur inventor. In Canada, the process of submitting a patent for approval starts at about 20 grand, not including legal consultation, and your patent can be contested at any time, even if approved. Plenty of people have brilliant ideas, even for relatively complex technologies, but you can't just fire off patents by the dozen anymore. Who knows how many frustrated Thomas Edisons there are out there right now.
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