“The history of technology depends little on man and his freedom,” Milan Kundera writes in The Curtain. “Obedient to its own logic, it cannot be other than what it has been or what it will be…If Edison had not invented the light bulb, someone else would have.” In fact, prior to Thomas Edison, about 20 people were working on similar inventions. And analogous circumstances apply to the origins of calculus, the polio vaccine, the telephone and the theories of evolution and relativity, to name just a few. Kundera’s reading of technological development as linear and indifferent to the person behind a discovery rings true. Breakthroughs occur anywhere, it seems, and are only a matter of time. This story is from Kinfolk Issue Twenty-Three Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 49 Karin Mamma Andersson Inside the moody, mysterious world of Sweden’s preeminent painter. Arts & Culture Issue 49 Mass Destruction “Artists are often left baffled by the fact that they have millions of monthly streams, yet only a couple of thousand followers on social media.” Arts & Culture Issue 49 On the Cheap The greatness of cultural worsts. Arts & Culture Issue 43 Signal Boost How status anxiety drives culture. Arts & Culture Issue 40 In Season Potable water meets palatable design. Arts & Culture Issue 38 Square Spaces On internet aesthetics.
Arts & Culture Issue 49 Karin Mamma Andersson Inside the moody, mysterious world of Sweden’s preeminent painter.
Arts & Culture Issue 49 Mass Destruction “Artists are often left baffled by the fact that they have millions of monthly streams, yet only a couple of thousand followers on social media.”
