I read a book called "King David's Spaceship" by, IIRC, Niven and Pournelle. It had one point in it that horse collars were a critical technology. Without horse collars, a horse could do five times as much work as a slave. A horse also ate five times as much. But with horse collars, a horse could do ten times as much work as a slave, but still only eat five times as much. This made slavery uneconomic, which changed all of society.
But nobody's going back in time to watch the invention of horse collars...
My point: Important and interesting are rather orthogonal.
Comments
I read a book called "King David's Spaceship" by, IIRC, Niven and Pournelle. It had one point in it that horse collars were a critical technology. Without horse collars, a horse could do five times as much work as a slave. A horse also ate five times as much. But with horse collars, a horse could do ten times as much work as a slave, but still only eat five times as much. This made slavery uneconomic, which changed all of society.
But nobody's going back in time to watch the invention of horse collars...
My point: Important and interesting are rather orthogonal.