How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World

Who would have thought water and time are so central to how we live today. This book reads like a novel and is truly eye opening. Very quick read as well, w/o much technical details.

I'm not the biggest fun of history books but I definitely loved this one. It brings a different perspective in so many things we take for granted in the present time. Totally recommend.

This one is absolute gem of a book. It is more of a book of history on scientific revolutions viewed through the eyes of invention itself.It tells succinctly about all the butterfly effects and ,in the words of Johnson himself, hummingbird effects.Certain things we have taken for granted in our lives, which we even don't think where they come from.How generalized inventions like glass,cold, sound,clean, time and light shaped our lives and how these concepts evolved through the material discoveries, is all beautifully described.You will feel thankful to all the material inventions you use after the discovery of these concepts after reading this book.

La idea que tenía de este libro era saber cómo se conectaron diversos inventos y/o conceptos que formaron nuestra era. Y si bien en parte el libro cubre ese aspecto, creo que se queda algo corto. Habla muy vagamente y pocas veces entra en detalle, sin embargo está más orientado a la creatividad y "suerte" de algunos inventores por lo que lo considero más apto para alguien que necesite inspiración y no aprender sobre historia (aunque si quisieras aprender sobre historia no sería la mejo opción ¿cierto?). Algo que me gustó es que tiene imágenes bastante detalladas que abarcan casi la totalidad de la hoja. En fin, si te gusta la ciencia, la tecnología y la creatividad es un buen libro. Ideal para pasar el rato ya que te lo podrías leer en unas 2 o 3 semanas.

Most books that I’ve read about past inventions and developing technologies pertain to the history of these devices and their direct impact on society. In this fascinating book, the author does discuss the historical developments and the direct impacts, but he also shows how these new innovations influenced other fields often in unexpected ways – some positive and some negative. The book is well illustrated with a great many useful figures and photographs that help make each story come to life.I found this book to be quite engaging and difficult to put down. The author’s writing style is quite friendly, often lively, cultured and widely accessible. This book can be enjoyed by any interested reader, but I suspect that science and technology enthusiasts as well as science history buffs will likely relish it the most.