Giving Compass' Take:

• Megan Gambino discusses the six innovations which, according to Steven Johnson, made modern life possible: glass, refrigeration, recorded sound, water purification, clocks, and artificial light.

• How does understanding the innovations which shaped the past and present inform our possibilities for shaping the future? Who is not benefiting from these innovations? How can those gaps be closed?

• Learn about adapting to technological disruption.

Glass. Refrigeration. Recorded sound. Water purification. Clocks. Artificial light. Modern life is made possible thanks to these monumental inventions and the many technologies they have spawned. At least that is the argument that Steven Johnson makes in his new book, How We Got to Now ... showing how one great idea inadvertently leads to a multitude of others. [For example,] Murano glassmaker Angelo Barovier’s creation of clear glass in the beginning of the 14th century, for instance, led to the invention of spectacles, the microscope and the telescope, even the fiber-optic cables of the Internet.

Thomas Edison invented the phonograph to send audio letters, and Alexander Graham Bell intended for people to use the telephone to listen to live orchestra music. [This] says that part of the process of innovation comes from the consumer side of the equation. You can invent the telephone and put it out in the world and say, "This would be fantastic for you playing cello on one end and someone else listening to you playing cello on the other end," but it gets out into the world and people start using it. They say, "That would be a terrible way of using the telephone. But it is really great for calling my grandmother."

One of the goals of the book ... is to celebrate a different kind of innovation then we normally do. Talk about innovation in our society ... is almost always focused on Silicon Valley. The history of innovation is much bigger than that. It is people ... who helped create the fact that we can now drink water from a tap and not worry about dying of cholera 48 hours later. They didn’t become famous. They didn’t become rich. But, we are completely indebted to their work.

Read the full article about inventions by Megan Gambino at Smithsonian Magazine.