Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World

On the surface, play seems to be a waste of time. People are engaging in mere "unproductive" activity. Why would people do that? There are some basic benefits individual and social benefits that occur to the participants. But what about to society? It turns out that many societal advances have their roots in play.

Video games have existed since the first time a computer had a screen. Many have learned programming skills to create games. Computer technology has also significantly advanced to meet the needs of gamers. These gaming advances have turned around been utilized for other more "practical" pursuits. The adoption of computers and advancements of technology would have proceeded at a much slower pace if not for games.

Rubber was first used by Native Americans to create a bouncing ball for a game. This substance was adopted to tires and other sources. (Vulcanization was a key part here - but Native Americans had already discovered that.) Fashion and shopping was a leisure activity. The colored cotton fabrics had a "play" benefit. This led to large scale cotton plantations (and the growth of slavery) in the new world.

Our built up environment has been heavily influenced by the desire for play. Shopping malls provide for leisure. They were originally created as part of a full city plan. Alas, all the other good aspects never quite made it. Epcot was also envisioned as a full city - only to be transferred to an amusement park.

Many other forms of leisure have led to future innovations. Different forms of entertainment shows have served as the basis for future technology advance. While I was expecting a more narrow focus of modern "games", the author throws a much wider net of different forms of entertainment throughout history. From this catch, he has picked a number of interesting stories to describe in detail.

Enemy of All Mankind: A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History's First Global Manhunt

Henry Every was a British pirate who inadvertently helped the British empire come to be. Enemy of all Mankind attempts to document his life and history and the unsuccessful worldwide manhunt for him. The actual facts are rather sparse (and wound up with a lot of fiction.) The book at times seems to try to spin elaborate detail over minute facts. However, it does provide an interesting narrative of the pirate.

Every may have been an accidental pirate. He, along with others, were enlisted to sail on a ship that was just not going anywhere. They had had enough of that, and decided to mutiny and claim the ship for themselves. They were kind enough to let those that wanted to leave and return back to land.

The voyage set out to various pirates dens, such as Madagascar. They later ended up near the red sea and then started to prey on Indian ships returning from the haj to Mecca. His ship teamed with a few others and got some nice spoils from a ship. The pirates democratically divided it up, with everyone receiving their share (with the Captain receiving two.) This single victory would give pirates the equivalent of a decades' wages. However, they still wanted more. 

They attacked an Indian ruler's ship. The pirates were at severe size disadvantage, however, they were extremely lucky. One of the cannons exploded on the big ship, killing many (and eliminating firepower.) Then the pirate ship hit a direct hit on one if the first shots. The leadership of the Indian ship freaked out, later arming some of the harem on board. This did not go well. The pirates ended up with great loot. There were also varying stories of what happened to the women. By some accounts, they were brutally raped, while by others they were taken as wives. The former is the most supported by facts.

In response to the attacks, the Indian leadership imprisoned the English India company officers. Since the pirates were English, they figured the India company must be also. In order to save face, the British led a global manhunt for the pirates. They also struck a deal where the British will provide protection for the Indians. This would help lead to British domination in India.

The manhunt did not succeed in finding Every. The pirates had a head start and had left the region. Many of the crew decided to leave, going abroad in places like Reunion, the Bahamas or North America. A few managed to sneak back to England. One pirate was caught with some of his plunder sewn into his jacket. A few pirates were tried for their crimes against the Indian ship. This was seen as a "show trial" to demonstrate how tough on pirates the British were. However, it backfired, with the jury finding the pirates not guilty. However, rather than set them free, they were later tried for the mutiny on the British ship. For this they were sentenced to hang. Seems like xenophobia was still strong in the day.

Every was never found. There were various rumors as to his whereabouts and future life. To the common man, he was often admired as a Robin Hood figure. To the elites, he was still a public enemy.

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

This is a slightly different take on the "key" inventions of the modern world. It tries to pick out the small things that ended up leading unintentionally to large scale change. One story starts with ice shippers realizing that money could be made by shipping ice from the cold climates to the tropics. However, to make a big profit, this required creating additional demand for ice where there never was much demand before. Eventually, this led to innovations in artificial refrigeration. And from this, building air conditioning resulted. And with air conditioning, a large scale population occurred as many people sought out hot climates that they would have not considered earlier.

Other topics are glass (microscopes, telescopes, spectacles), sound (jazz music, ultrasound, and fewer girls in China), clean (chlorination, soap operas, mega cities, semiconductors), time (gps, time zones), and light.

Invention of Air

The Invention of Air is ostensibly a biography of Joseph Priestley. However, the principle argument is that surplus energy provides the impetus for scientific revolution. Thus, England was the source of the recent boom industrial and scientific revolution due to the plentiful and easily accessible coal measures. Priestly was fortunate to live in this time, and thus had sufficient free time to devote to some of his experiments.
The author argues that his discovery that plants produce "air" that animals need to survive is his greater (but overlooked) discovery. (His discovery of oxygen is overshadowed by his willingness to lock on to a debunked "flojisten" theory.)
At the outset, the author argues that Priestley is one of the most important figures in the early American history - pointing out that in letters, he is referenced many more times than others like Ben Franklin. However, he does a poor job of proving that argument.
Instead, he spends more time rambling on about how innovation happens, with a lot of attention paid to Thomas Kuhn's, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions". It does make for some interesting reading. But, alas diverges from the central focus.