Following the Thread: Machinery Industry

One major breakthrough of the industrial revolutions was the generalization of mechanization in our daily lives. The big machinery of the late nineteenth century that enabled stunning progress and considerable achievements fed the imagination of cohorts of people, young and adults. Jules Verne, who was passionate about geography, imagined a world of explorations now possible thanks to these technological developments. He led his characters to the center of the Earth, to the moon, and to the bottom of the ocean. What is remarkable is that, on the one hand, most of his creative thinking turned into reality in the twentieth century, and on the other, his work continues to inspire the young generation today, a century later. In fact, the universe he created has not aged one bit. While we do not necessarily know much about all the underlying foundations of modern machinery, it continues to galvanize the young generation. Put a novel by Jules Verne in the hands of a 10-year-old, and you will see him or her begin to invent a whole range of new machines to solve some of the problems humanity has not been able to crack yet. I have verified this many times. Machines are thus more than a means to an end; they represent ultimate progress, and the fact that they inspire the young generation so much says a lot about human ingenuity. It is also striking to see how this natural and innocent passion tends to fade away as years pass, something that largely remains a mystery to me and that should be the subject of a book, but not this one!…