6 Killer Appz? Perhaps...

After watching the TED Talk by Niall Ferguson I can certainly think of a few things to say. The first is that I think he simplified the points he was trying to make, perhaps because of the nature of TED Talks and that they are limited to 20 minutes. Overall though, I agree with what he had to say about the institutions that led to the "Great Divergence." The points he brought up about the U.S and U.K (and the rest of Europe too) were particularly stunning, especially in looking at the patent chart and the chart comparing work ethics in the U.S/ U.K with those in China. He defiantly hit points of what caused the West to advance over the East, but I believe he may have missed one. Never once did he bring up resources. Although he explained increasing military technology through the scientific technology, he never explained where the resources that built these ships, guns and made the bullets came from. Africa, for instance, has large stretches of land that are barren of resources that are useable, including water. So what effect did the availability of resources such as iron, water, wood (for ships) and paper have on these developing societies? Although he did say if I played this game I would loose... so maybe I am totally off. But I think that resources had to play a role in the advancement of technology and medicine... it's really hard to think with a dehydration headache or when you are really hungry. That and something has to make the products which are consumed in a consumer society. He defiantly hit on points that were important, I just think that missed some, and that oversimplifying thousands of years (and billions of people) into 6 categories might be a little too much in order to still be able to support his "thesis" if you will.

On the other hand, it is defiantly a wake up call for Americans to see how they are falling behind to China in almost every global comparison, and I think his remarks at the end of the video about the focus being placed on the E.U crisis and U.S debt crisis are defiantly interesting and deserve some thought. It in particular makes me think of rising gas prices, and a talk I heard on NPR once about how broadcasting rising gas prices was actually speeding up the increase of gas prices, I would if the same type of concept applies?