GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL - Cloverport Independent Schools

2 6 4 " GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL
diffusion, and onset of food production exerted on the rise of technology
became exaggerated, because technology catalyzes itself. Eurasia's considerable
initial advantage thereby was translated into a huge lead as of A.D.
1492—for reasons of Eurasia's distinctive geography rather than of distinctive
human intellect. The New Guineans whom I know include potential
Edisons. But they directed their ingenuity toward technological
problems appropriate to their situations: the problems of surviving without
any imported items in the New Guinea jungle, rather than the problem
of inventing phonographs.