The Great Transfer: From Human Muscle to Machine Intelligence
Human history can be understood as a long transfer of burden and capability. For most of our existence, what humanity could accomplish was limited by the capabilities of the human body. We could carry only so much, travel only so fast, work only so long, and remember only so much. Then we began moving those limitations outside ourselves.
We supplemented human muscle with animal muscle. Oxen pulled our plows, horses carried us farther and faster, and wind and water turned our mills. Humans still supplied purpose, direction, and judgment, but we had begun externalizing physical capability. Steam dramatically accelerated the process. Enormous amounts of mechanical power could now be generated without muscles at all, powering factories, locomotives, ships, and mines. Human beings increasingly became operators of power rather than its primary source.
Electricity took the next step. Steam had concentrated power; electricity distributed it. Energy could travel through networks and...
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