After an incredibly slow first few chapters, this book was one of the most interesting things I have ever read. I first heard about it during an episode of Radiolab on NPR, where the author gave an interview about the book. The basic premise is that there is an almost predetermined path to the march of technology: like evolution, there are certain events that are always going to occur. For instance, it is estimated that eyes have evolved in species independently forty times. Such an incredibly efficient and useful mechanism is always superior to the alternative, so it arises again and again. Much the same thing happens with technology, where inventors who are working independently, completely unaware of each other, develop the same technologies because it is an efficient and useful mechanism. In a way it was similar to the "Me, Myself, and Muse" episode of Radiolab (reviewed here), in that it explored the idea of concepts existing on their own, but reliant on humans to come to their full form.
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