Blueprints and Borrowed Letters - Guns, Germs, and Steel pp 224
The spread of writing has occurred by either of two contrasting methods, which find parallels throughout the history of technology and ideas. Someone invents something and puts it to use. How doe you , another would-be user, then design something similar for your own use, knowing that other people have already got their own model built and working?
Such transmission of inventions assumes a whole spectrum of forms. At the one end lies "blueprint copying," when you copy or modify an available detailed blueprint. At the opposite end lies "idea diffusion," when you receive little more than the basic idea and have to reinvent the details. Knowing that it can be done stimulates you to try to do it yourself, but the eventual specific solution may or may not resemble that of the first inventor.
Where do electric cars fit into to this spectrum? Is the Volt the original electric car and did Tesla fall closer towards "blueprint copying" or was it "idea diffusion?" I believe Tesla closer to idea diffusion. Their take on the electric car seems more ground up and result of the understanding that the feasibility of the electric car was a viable enterprise.
The spread of writing has occurred by either of two contrasting methods, which find parallels throughout the history of technology and ideas. Someone invents something and puts it to use. How doe you , another would-be user, then design something similar for your own use, knowing that other people have already got their own model built and working?
Such transmission of inventions assumes a whole spectrum of forms. At the one end lies "blueprint copying," when you copy or modify an available detailed blueprint. At the opposite end lies "idea diffusion," when you receive little more than the basic idea and have to reinvent the details. Knowing that it can be done stimulates you to try to do it yourself, but the eventual specific solution may or may not resemble that of the first inventor.
Where do electric cars fit into to this spectrum? Is the Volt the original electric car and did Tesla fall closer towards "blueprint copying" or was it "idea diffusion?" I believe Tesla closer to idea diffusion. Their take on the electric car seems more ground up and result of the understanding that the feasibility of the electric car was a viable enterprise.
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