Maybe this need to elevate man-made devices is not merely caused by frustration but for a large part by the need to organize society. Sun dials in early history, the invention and development of clocks are the result of man's wish for efficiency. To get organized. The Book and film about John Harrison's struggle to conquer the longitude problem is fascinating in this context as it is about the struggle to find how time can help to know distance and coordinates. Longitude
Good point, BranShea. I suppose though that earlier history rulers were more preoccupied with organizing their power in respect to other nations than the more contemporary notion of efficiency. The progress of scientific principles, after all, was always driven by few interested individuals backed up by some equally interested elite, should such have been present. The understanding that these principles could be applied to society, the understanding that a society could be kept under control when made and kept better off rather than worse off is a relatively new concept, no?
Will deffinetely check out 'Longitude', hadn't heard of the book or the film. Daniel Kehlmann's 'Measuring the world' comes to mind, though it's a fiction novel.
M & M is a beautiful book. Speaking of filming versions, there is a lot of controversy and peculiar turn of fate around the struggles to adapt it to the screen...
