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If I was on a more sophisticated forum I would assume this is satire. Alas, just classic HN tech bro nonsense.

• masswerk 4y ago
  Just good old 19th century play write logic. In essence, it's about not seeing the role of an economic window of opportunity for opening up a then rapidly advancing segment of the "tech tree". E.g., the idea of the locomotive only became viable with the Napoleonic wars and the (at times) exponential increase in prices of horses and/or fodder (esp. between 1808 and 1824 in the UK, these spikes are also, when we see any major projects started). With maintenance costs of horse driven machinery rising, even marginal technology like early locomotives became viable, eventually leading to a mature technology, which is economical sound even in normal times. (We me see similar with rising natural gas prices in Europe, nowadays.) So, why hadn't this been pursued earlier? Well, it must have been because of the stubbornness of the ancestors. Usually, this is accomplished by ignoring that there had been always a difference between a commonly acknowledged working model and a higher spiritual truth, which seldom clashed, only when it came to claims that endangered the hierarchy. (E.g., the idea of everyone actually believing in a flat earth originates essentially in a 19th century play about Columbus. However, the T-shaped world map was never a working model, it conveyed a spiritual truth only. Columbus' problem was really him proposing that the world was smaller than generally assumed, thus there would be no room for another continent – for which there had been some evidence – and a direct way to India. Which is, as we know, not how it works.)