Technology is uneven by geography. Why?
Inventions are not just uneven by time, inventions also are uneven by geography. For example, 2 small geographic areas have produced over 10X-100X the expected number of inventions for the region’s population.
Sumer (Mesopotamia) and Silicon Valley, centers of technology.
Sumer, Mesopotamia from 3500 BCE -3000 BCE maintained a small population of 1.2 million individuals. Despite the low population, Sumer produced many of the greatest inventions of all time. Important Sumer inventions include: written language, wheel and axle, bronze smelting, plow (ard), wood hulled oared sailboat, and hydraulic engineering. See blog on “Greatest Technology Producing Civilization of All Time”.
Silicon Valley is a second striking example of inventions uneven by geography. Silicon Valley is a small region of the San Francisco Bay of California. Despite a population of less than 4 million persons, Silicon Valley has produced many of the 21st century’s greatest inventions. Important inventions from Silicon Valley include: the Iphone, Facebook, eBay, Ipad, Apple watch, Uber, Netflix, PapPal, Tesla, Square, Adobe Photoshop, Google, HP printers, Intel microprocessors/silicon computer chips. With 45% of the USA venture capital in 2015, Silicon Valley is the greatest source of technology investment in the world (see blog on “Silicon Valley Defined”).
More recent eras have also demonstrated extreme geographic variability in invention numbers. Analysis of Encyclopedia Britannica’s 342 Greatest Inventions of All Time in Wikipedia:
- 167/342 – (49%) came from the USA despite possessing only 4% of the world population.
- 43 /342 – (12%) came from the United Kingdom despite possessing only 0.9% of the world population.
- 292/342 – (85%) came from the USA and Western Europe combined despite possessing only 7.5% of the world population. That means 92.5% of the world population produces the remaining 15% of the inventions.
The United States and Western Europe have produced by far most of the world’s great inventions.
USA and Western Europe created 292 out of 342 of the World’s Greatest Inventions or 85% of the Greatest Inventions of All Time. The USA possesses 4.25% of the world population and Western Europe possesses 2.52% of the world population. Together they support 6.77% of the world population. The USA and Western Europe produced 85% of World technology inventions and yet comprise less than 7% of the world population.
There is more than 10X the technology produced by the USA and Western Europe than what we would expect based on population alone.
Whereas China produced over 40 of the world’s greatest inventions, the technology of China spread over more than 21,000 years versus largely 600 years for Western Europe and 250 years for the United States.
Rough inspection of my 2000 greatest inventions of all time supports similar numbers and percentages to the 342 Greatest Inventions of All Time from Encyclopedia Britannica.
Clearly, small areas of the world produce most of the inventions
while some large parts of the world (Africa, Latin America) produce almost no inventions.
The Age of Discovery, 1400-1600, saw commercial trade expand with Europe and the rest of the world. In addition, ocean going caravel ships began to cross the oceans bringing European immigration to the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Trade networks developed across the oceans. Colonization of the world occurred by the European naval powers of England, France, and Spain. The special trade and culture relationship between England and the United States included patent law similarities.
Even within the greatest invention producing country of all time, the United States, invention production is extremely uneven.
Specialized technology centers like Silicon Valley explain why inventions are uneven by geography.
While some concentrated areas like Silicon Valley in central California, North central USA, and Northeast USA produce extremely high numbers of inventions. In contrast, other areas in the more south central and southeastern USA produces far fewer inventions. So why the unevenness?
Consistently, the university system in the United States ranks #1 in the world. University cities are centers of technology. Major technology universities link to regional centers of technology. Stanford University links to Silicon Valley. Massachusetts Institute of Technology links to Boston and the Northeast USA. Lower business tax rates and stronger intellectual property protections contribute to the US as the world leader in inventions and technology development.
