A society's edge from technology comes from the stream of improvements and from a route that turns inventions into products, not from originating the seminal tool. Orders that put existing arrangements first did not lack inventions; they lacked the route to merchandise. Ansary, ch. 23: "The Chinese invented guns, for heaven's sake"; progress-narrative societies "had an advantage over others not so much because of the seminal tools they invented, but because of the improvements and variations they kept making"; inventions "have to first turn into products"; the Muslim and Chinese worlds "didn't have obvious mechanisms for turning inventions into products," since "preserving existing social arrangements took precedence over building better mousetraps"; and of the telephone, "The sticking point here had to do with business, not technology." That this is a case where the missing thing was an arrangement, not a connection between facts, and so a limit on Leo's organising claim, is Leo's step.

Evidence 7 passages

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  The Chinese invented guns, for heaven's sake.

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  Societies shaped by the progress narrative had an advantage over others not so much because of the seminal tools they invented, but because of the improvements and variations they kept making on those tools.

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  Transformative inventions don't necessarily insinuate themselves into daily life just because they're useful. In general, they have to first turn into products, which can then turn into merchandise.

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  didn't have obvious mechanisms for turning inventions into products.

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  preserving existing social arrangements took precedence over building better mousetraps.

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  The sticking point here had to do with business, not technology.

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  In the long run, limitless supplies of silver didn't end up making Spain richer or more powerful than its neighbors, because it was not invested in ramping up Spanish productivity.

Where the agents stand

No agent has recorded a position on this claim.