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Invention and Innovation
- A Brief History of Hype and Failure
- Narrated by: Tim Fannon
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
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Publisher's summary
From the New York Times-bestselling author, a new volume on the history of human ingenuity—and its attendant breakthroughs and busts.
The world is never finished catching up with Vaclav Smil. In his latest and perhaps most digestible book, Invention and Innovation, the prolific author—a favorite of Bill Gates—pens an insightful and fact-filled jaunt through the history of human invention. Impatient with the hype that so often accompanies innovation, Smil offers in this book a clear-eyed corrective to the overpromises that accompany everything from new cures for diseases to AI. He reminds us that even after we go quite far along the invention-development-application trajectory, we may never get anything real to deploy. Or worse, even after we have succeeded by introducing an invention, its future may be marked by underperformance, disappointment, demise, or outright harm.
Drawing on his vast breadth of scientific and historical knowledge, Smil explains the difference between invention and innovation. He then looks at three different types of inventions.
Inventions that failed to dominate as promised:
Airships
Nuclear fission
Supersonic flight
Inventions that turned disastrous:
Leaded gasoline
DDT
Chlorofluorocarbons
Inventions we have long been promised (and that would be highly beneficial):
Travel in vacuum (hyperloop)
Nitrogen-fixing cereals
Nuclear fusion
Finally, he offers a “wish list” of inventions that we most urgently need to confront the staggering challenges of the twenty-first century.
Filled with engaging examples and pragmatic approaches, this book is a sobering account of the folly that so often attends human ingenuity—and how we can, and must, better align our expectations with reality.
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Performance
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Science, the future, and great wisdom
- By Philomath on 10-29-18
By: Martin Rees
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How to Avoid a Climate Disaster
- The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need
- By: Bill Gates
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton, Bill Gates
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Bill Gates shares what he's learned in more than a decade of studying climate change and investing in innovations to address the problems, and sets out a vision for how the world can build the tools it needs to get to zero greenhouse gas emissions. Bill Gates explains why he cares so deeply about climate change and what makes him optimistic that the world can avoid the most dire effects of the climate crisis. Gates says, "We can work on a local, national, and global level to build the technologies, businesses, and industries to avoid the worst impacts of climate change."
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Be curious, not furious
- By Axel Merk on 02-20-21
By: Bill Gates
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The Industrial Revolution
- A Captivating Guide to a Period of Major Industrialization and the Introduction of the Spinning Jenny, the Cotton Gin, Electricity, and Other Inventions
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Jason Zenobia
- Length: 3 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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For most of human existence, people lived in a somewhat similar fashion. Everything that has been produced, from food and raw materials to clothing and other finished products, has been done either solely by hand or with some help of animal power. This was the same across the eras and throughout the world, no matter how advanced or backward the various civilizations were. Yet, our lives today couldn’t be more different.
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Excellent introduction
- By H. Paavilainen on 09-26-21
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Fossil Future
- Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas—Not Less
- By: Alex Epstein
- Narrated by: Alex Epstein
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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For over a decade, philosopher and energy expert Alex Epstein has predicted that any negative impacts of fossil fuel use on our climate will be outweighed by the unique benefits of fossil fuels to human flourishing--including their unrivaled ability to provide low-cost, reliable energy to billions of people around the world, especially the world’s poorest people. And contrary to what we hear from media “experts” about today’s “renewable revolution” and “climate emergency,” reality has proven Epstein right.
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Strongly Recommend
- By Kevin on 06-14-22
By: Alex Epstein
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The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels
- By: Alex Epstein
- Narrated by: Alex Epstein
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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For decades environmentalists have told us that using fossil fuels is a self-destructive addiction that will destroy our planet. Yet by every measure of human well-being, from life expectancy to clean water to climate safety, life has been getting better and better. How can this be? The explanation is that we usually hear only one side of the story. We're taught to think only of the negatives of fossil fuels, their risks and side effects, but not their positives.
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A different point of view
- By Ballofyarn on 01-12-17
By: Alex Epstein
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Apocalypse Never
- Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All
- By: Michael Shellenberger
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Michael Shellenberger has been fighting for a greener planet for decades. He helped save the world’s last unprotected redwoods. He co-created the predecessor to today’s Green New Deal. And he led a successful effort by climate scientists and activists to keep nuclear plants operating, preventing a spike of emissions. But in 2019, as some claimed "billions of people are going to die", contributing to rising anxiety, including among adolescents, Shellenberger decided that he needed to speak out to separate science from fiction.
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Environmentalist with integrity!
- By Wayne on 07-01-20
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Radical Abundance
- How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization
- By: K. Eric Drexler
- Narrated by: Tim Pabon
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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K. Eric Drexler is the founding father of nanotechnology - the science of engineering on a molecular level. In Radical Abundance, he shows how rapid scientific progress is about to change our world. Thanks to atomically precise manufacturing, we will soon have the power to produce radically more of what people want, and at a lower cost. The result will shake the very foundations of our economy and environment.
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Drexler Rehashes the Past
- By David on 10-19-13
By: K. Eric Drexler
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Abundance
- The Future Is Better Than You Think
- By: Steven Kotler, Peter H. Diamandis
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Space entrepreneur turned innovation pioneer Peter H. Diamandis and award-winning science writer Steven Kotler document how progress in artificial intelligence, robotics, digital manufacturing synthetic biology, and other exponentially growing technologies will enable us to make greater gains in the next two decades than we have in the previous 200 years.
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Perhaps multiply his time estimates by 10
- By Rick on 11-06-21
By: Steven Kotler, and others
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Simply Electrifying
- The Technology That Transformed the World, from Benjamin Franklin to Elon Musk
- By: Craig R. Roach
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Simply Electrifying: The Technology That Transformed the World, from Benjamin Franklin to Elon Musk brings to life the 250-year history of electricity through the stories of the men and women who used it to transform our world: Benjamin Franklin, James Watt, Michael Faraday, Samuel F.B. Morse, Thomas Edison, Samuel Insull, Albert Einstein, Rachel Carson, Elon Musk, and more. In the process, it reveals for the first time the complete, thrilling, and often dangerous story of electricity's historic discovery, development, and worldwide application.
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decent, but ended up disappointing.
- By Alexander Douglass on 12-28-18
By: Craig R. Roach
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The Vertical Farm
- Feeding the World in the 21st Century
- By: Dickson Despommier
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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When Columbia professor Dickson Despommier set out to solve America's food, water, and energy crises, he didn't just think big - he thought up. The vertical farm has excited scientists, architects, and politicians around the globe. These farms, grown inside skyscrapers, would provide solutions to many of the serious problems we currently face.
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Excellent Brainstorming - Not reality
- By Texas Community Project on 01-25-11
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Life's Engines
- How Microbes Made Earth Habitable
- By: Paul G. Falkowski
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Paul Falkowski looks "under the hood" of microbes to find the engines of life, the actual working parts that do the biochemical heavy lifting for every living organism on Earth. With insight and humor, he explains how these miniature engines are built - and how they have been appropriated by and assembled like Lego sets within every creature that walks, swims, or flies. Falkowski shows how evolution works to maintain this core machinery of life, and how we and other animals are veritable conglomerations of microbes.
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Best Science Book Ever Written. Period.
- By serine on 07-28-15
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Numbers Don't Lie
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Vaclav Smil's mission is to make facts matter. An environmental scientist, policy analyst, and a hugely prolific author, he is Bill Gates' go-to guy for making sense of our world. In Numbers Don't Lie, Smil answers questions such as: What's worse for the environment - your car or your phone? How much do the world's cows weigh (and what does it matter)? And what makes people happy?
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Strange book
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How the World Really Works
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We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet most of us don’t know how the world really works. This book explains seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity. From energy and food production, through our material world and its globalization, to risks, our environment and its future, How the World Really Works offers a much-needed reality check—because before we can tackle problems effectively, we must understand the facts.
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Let me save you a credit: progress is hard
- By Dalton on 06-06-22
By: Vaclav Smil
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Grand Transitions
- How the Modern World Was Made
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What makes the modern world work? The answer to this deceptively simple question lies in four "grand transitions" of civilization - in populations, agriculture, energy, and economics - that have transformed the way we live.
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Nihil novum sub soli
- By Sam J. on 08-29-22
By: Vaclav Smil
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Growth
- From Microorganisms to Megacities
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Growth has been both an unspoken and an explicit aim of our individual and collective striving. It governs the lives of microorganisms and galaxies; it shapes the capabilities of our extraordinarily large brains and the fortunes of our economies. Growth is manifested in annual increments of continental crust, a rising gross domestic product, a child's growth chart, the spread of cancerous cells. In this magisterial book, Vaclav Smil offers systematic investigation of growth in nature and society, from tiny organisms to the trajectories of empires and civilizations.
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PDF should come with this book...
- By Sebastian on 04-22-20
By: Vaclav Smil
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Size
- How It Explains the World
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Size explains the regularities—and peculiarities—of the key processes shaping life (from microbes to whales), the Earth (from asteroids to volcanic eruptions), technical advances (from architecture to transportation), and societies and economies (from cities to wages).
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Worth a read
- By Rurik McKaiser on 05-21-23
By: Vaclav Smil
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Power Density
- A Key to Understanding Energy Sources and Uses
- By: Vaclav Smil
- Narrated by: Daniel Henning
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
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In this book, Vaclav Smil argues that power density is a key determinant of the nature and dynamics of energy systems. Any understanding of complex energy systems must rely on quantitative measures of many fundamental variables. Power density—the rate of energy flux per unit of area—is an important but largely overlooked measure. Smil provides the first systematic, quantitative appraisal of power density, offering detailed reviews of the power densities of renewable energy flows, fossil fuels, thermal electricity generation, and all common energy uses.
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A Different Look at the Pros and Cons of Renewable Energy and Fossil Fuels
- By Anonymous User on 07-10-24
By: Vaclav Smil
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Numbers Don't Lie
- 71 Stories to Help Us Understand the Modern World
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Strange book
- By Stephen on 05-25-21
By: Vaclav Smil
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How the World Really Works
- The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going
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We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet most of us don’t know how the world really works. This book explains seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity. From energy and food production, through our material world and its globalization, to risks, our environment and its future, How the World Really Works offers a much-needed reality check—because before we can tackle problems effectively, we must understand the facts.
-
-
Let me save you a credit: progress is hard
- By Dalton on 06-06-22
By: Vaclav Smil
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Grand Transitions
- How the Modern World Was Made
- By: Vaclav Smil
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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What makes the modern world work? The answer to this deceptively simple question lies in four "grand transitions" of civilization - in populations, agriculture, energy, and economics - that have transformed the way we live.
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Nihil novum sub soli
- By Sam J. on 08-29-22
By: Vaclav Smil
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Growth
- From Microorganisms to Megacities
- By: Vaclav Smil
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 26 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Growth has been both an unspoken and an explicit aim of our individual and collective striving. It governs the lives of microorganisms and galaxies; it shapes the capabilities of our extraordinarily large brains and the fortunes of our economies. Growth is manifested in annual increments of continental crust, a rising gross domestic product, a child's growth chart, the spread of cancerous cells. In this magisterial book, Vaclav Smil offers systematic investigation of growth in nature and society, from tiny organisms to the trajectories of empires and civilizations.
-
-
PDF should come with this book...
- By Sebastian on 04-22-20
By: Vaclav Smil
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Size
- How It Explains the World
- By: Vaclav Smil
- Narrated by: Stephen Perring
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Size explains the regularities—and peculiarities—of the key processes shaping life (from microbes to whales), the Earth (from asteroids to volcanic eruptions), technical advances (from architecture to transportation), and societies and economies (from cities to wages).
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Worth a read
- By Rurik McKaiser on 05-21-23
By: Vaclav Smil
-
Power Density
- A Key to Understanding Energy Sources and Uses
- By: Vaclav Smil
- Narrated by: Daniel Henning
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this book, Vaclav Smil argues that power density is a key determinant of the nature and dynamics of energy systems. Any understanding of complex energy systems must rely on quantitative measures of many fundamental variables. Power density—the rate of energy flux per unit of area—is an important but largely overlooked measure. Smil provides the first systematic, quantitative appraisal of power density, offering detailed reviews of the power densities of renewable energy flows, fossil fuels, thermal electricity generation, and all common energy uses.
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A Different Look at the Pros and Cons of Renewable Energy and Fossil Fuels
- By Anonymous User on 07-10-24
By: Vaclav Smil
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Energy and Civilization
- A History
- By: Vaclav Smil
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 20 hrs and 9 mins
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In this monumental history, Vaclav Smil provides a comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel-driven civilization and offers listeners a magisterial overview of humanity's energy eras.
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Not a good format for this book
- By C. Hoogeboom on 05-19-18
By: Vaclav Smil
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Made in the USA
- The Rise and Retreat of American Manufacturing
- By: Vaclav Smil
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
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In Made in the USA, Vaclav Smil powerfully rebuts the notion that manufacturing is a relic of predigital history and that the loss of American manufacturing is a desirable evolutionary step toward a pure service economy. Smil argues that no advanced economy can prosper without a strong, innovative manufacturing sector and the jobs it creates. Smil assesses various suggestions for solving America's manufacturing crisis, including lowering corporate tax rates, promoting research and development, and improving public education. Will America act to reinvigorate manufacturing?
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first half was good
- By Jim on 12-12-22
By: Vaclav Smil
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Energy
- An Audio Guide
- By: Vaclav Smil
- Narrated by: Dave Ferguson
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In this user-friendly and informative audiobook, prolific author and academic Vaclav Smil provides an introduction to this far-reaching term and gives the reader a greater understanding of energy's place in both past and present society. Starting with an explanation of the concept, he goes on to cover such exciting topics as the inner workings of the human body, and the race for more efficient and environmentally friendly fuels.
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Listening to the Encyclopedia of Energy
- By See Reverse on 03-02-18
By: Vaclav Smil
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Not the End of the World
- How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet
- By: Hannah Ritchie
- Narrated by: Hannah Ritchie PhD
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It’s become common to tell kids that they’re going to die from climate change. We are constantly bombarded by doomsday headlines that tell us the soil won’t be able to support crops, fish will vanish from our oceans, and that we should reconsider having children.
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Environmental Sustainability Analysis
- By RM on 04-16-24
By: Hannah Ritchie
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The Song of the Cell
- An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human
- By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 16 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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From the author of The Emperor of All Maladies, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and The Gene, a #1 New York Times bestseller, comes his most spectacular book yet, an exploration of medicine and our radical new ability to manipulate cells. Rich with Mukherjee’s revelatory and exhilarating stories of scientists, doctors, and the patients whose lives may be saved by their work, The Song of the Cell is the third book in this extraordinary writer’s exploration of what it means to be human.
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Beyond Words Wonderful
- By Lynn on 11-27-22
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Understanding the Inventions That Changed the World
- By: W. Bernard Carlson, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: W. Bernard Carlson
- Length: 17 hrs and 25 mins
- Original Recording
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Now, you can learn the remarkable stories surrounding monumental inventions - and how consequential these inventions were to history. Taught by Professor W. Bernard Carlson of the University of Virginia, who is an expert on the role of innovation in history, these 36 enlightening lectures give you a broad survey of material history, from the ancient pottery wheel to the Internet and social media. Along with recounting the famous inventions you might expect, this course explores a number of surprising innovations, including beer, pagodas, and the operating room.
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Great content but poor editing on the delivery
- By Michael on 12-22-18
By: W. Bernard Carlson, and others
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Oil
- An Audio Guide
- By: Vaclav Smil
- Narrated by: Robert Meldrum
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Without oil, there would be no globalisation, no plastic, little transport, and a global political landscape that few would recognise. It is the lifeblood of the modern world, and humanity’s dependence upon it looks set to continue for decades to come. In this captivating audiobook, Vaclav Smil explains all matters related to ‘black gold’, from its discovery in the earth, right through to the political maelstrom that surrounds it today.
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Absolutely Masterful! Comprehensive yet succinct.
- By Talbot on 03-20-16
By: Vaclav Smil
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How to Feed the World
- The History and Future of Food
- By: Vaclav Smil
- Narrated by: Joe Jameson
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
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We have never had to feed as many people as we do today. And yet, we misunderstand the essentials of where our food really comes from, how our dietary requirements shape us, and why this impacts our planet in drastic ways. As a result, in our economic, political, and everyday choices, we take for granted and fail to prioritize the thing that makes all our lives possible: food. In this ambitious, myth-busting book, Vaclav Smil investigates many of the burning questions facing the world today.
By: Vaclav Smil
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The Blind Watchmaker
- Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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The Blind Watchmaker, knowledgably narrated by author Richard Dawkins, is as prescient and timely a book as ever. The watchmaker belongs to the 18th-century theologian William Paley, who argued that just as a watch is too complicated and functional to have sprung into existence by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. Charles Darwin's brilliant discovery challenged the creationist arguments; but only Richard Dawkins could have written this elegant riposte.
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Challenging textbook more than an enjoyable listen
- By Eric on 01-15-12
By: Richard Dawkins
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Unbound
- How Eight Technologies Made Us Human, Transformed Society, and Brought Our World to the Brink
- By: Richard L. Currier
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Although we usually think of technology as something unique to modern times, our ancestors began to create the first technologies millions of years ago in the form of prehistoric tools and weapons. Over time, eight key technologies gradually freed us from the limitations of our animal origins.
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Good facts, not much else
- By Joel B. Gordon on 10-30-16
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The Substance of Civilization
- Materials and Human History from the Stone Age to the Age of Silicon
- By: Stephen L. Sass
- Narrated by: John Haag
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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The story of human civilization can be read most deeply in the materials we have found or created, used or abused. They have dictated how we build, eat, communicate, wage war, create art, travel, and worship. Some, such as stone, iron, and bronze, lend their names to the ages. Others, such as gold, silver, and diamond, contributed to the rise and fall of great empires.
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Very enjoyable!
- By Tim Dion on 10-25-22
By: Stephen L. Sass
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The Nature of Technology
- What It Is and How It Evolves
- By: W. Brian Arthur
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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In this groundbreaking work, pioneering technology thinker and economist W. Brian Arthur sets forth a boldly original way of thinking about technology. The Nature of Technology is an elegant and powerful theory of technology's origins and evolution. It achieves for the progress of technology what Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions did for scientific progress.
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mind blowing
- By T. Leach on 01-12-18
By: W. Brian Arthur
What listeners say about Invention and Innovation
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 09-06-23
Good
It was a good read and very thought provoking regarding the barriers engineers faced when creating something new.
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- J. Bass
- 07-22-24
Not quite as good as some of his other books
The narration was good but the content not quite as good as his other books.
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- J.
- 07-20-23
Innovation on timeline
In the latest book the author analyzes optimism and hype associated with innovation through a number of clearly presented use cases. Highly recommend!
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1 person found this helpful
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- York Westenhaver
- 05-08-24
Similar to other books, but a different view
This book is Mostly a rehashing of concepts better told in Vaclav’s other books. Notwithstanding, the book is much more concise, and for that reason I liked it a lot.
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- William
- 12-14-23
Don’t give up!
The author is a very knowledgeable skeptic. This book is a great listen for anyone, like me, who hopes for technology to solve our current and future problems. It’s going to be a lot harder than you’d think by reading much of the coverage of scientific breakthroughs. But don’t give up. We’ve made amazing progress in the past and we have to keep trying.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Tom
- 01-04-24
Reality, like it or not
Some stuff hard to take, not very PC, but there it is. Very informative and interesting.
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- Tan
- 07-19-23
Not the best from Vaclav, but near the top
Title says the most of it.
Not one of his best books, but pretty high up there. Interesting topics with a lot of interesting insights. Good memory refresher of what have been the big words and the similarities between them.
Definitely worth the monwy/credit.
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3 people found this helpful
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- David E. Hauber
- 07-22-23
Very disappointing
I was mislead by the title, it should be "A Boring Review of Failure." The author's obsessive use of irrelevant detail is probably intended to impress the reader but it just makes a monotonous book unreadable. If you are a pessimist you might like this book, the rest of us should pass.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Christian R. Oldham
- 07-28-23
Nothing new here
If you are aware of the controversy surrounding leaded gasoline, CFC's, DDT, nuclear fission (and fusion), the Hindenburg, and the Concorde then you probably won't learn anything new. I should have looked at the chapter titles before I purchased it.
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2 people found this helpful