Globalization of Knowledge, Science, and Technology

Scientific discoveries and technological inventions have been the greatest sources of both violent and nonviolent social and cultural transformations throughout human history, from the invention of the sword, gunpowder, the compass, the clock, and alchemy to the theories of gravity, electromagnetism, relativity, and the development of lasers, integrated circuits, microchips, computers, nuclear bombs, and nanotechnologies. These ideas and inventions that have transformed our world have come from diverse cultural and intellectual traditions and sources. They are normally taken for granted while their origins and antecedents go unnoticed. The common person’s history of modern science and technology begins with the Industrial Revolution in Europe three hundred years ago and ends in the contemporary United States as the leading country.