Hidden Systems

SUPER up my alley. Like, if you read James Scott and if you were thrilled - THRILLED, I say! - at how last names evolved such that the state could more easily tax its citizens, well, this is a book like that. Also! If you like David Macauley and like to nerd out about infrastructure and underlying systems, yes, this is more of that. (And David Macauley gives a blurb for this book.)

I loved the internet section. I was reminded of a friend who noted that the size of the NASA space shuttle is a function of the size of horse carriages cuz of the underlying infrastructural grooves of horse butt -> width of horse carriage -> width of road -> width of truck to haul space gear. Which is amusing.

I loved the electricity section too. I am ALL about electricity markets and electrification right now. Boy. I have learned a lot about my local utility, ha.

I actually didn't care for the water section. That one left me with more questions than answers. It felt too skimmy (heh).

Still, there are not enough books like this in the world! Just like, as I shouted in 2017, wtaf is wifi!?!?!? (And I now have a decent grasp of radiowaves and such, hooray.) So too am I still like, BUT what is electricity??!?!?! And so on.

I think Charles Mann said something recently about how we need to be educating the youth about these practical systems - that, right now, in this (post-)modern life, we live so abstracted away from the actual tools for survival and modernity (light, energy, water, internet).