How we got to now - at KQED

A fun evening at KQED in San Francisco: Steven Johnson presented a preview of his new PBS television show "How we got to now". Johnson presents how things we generally take for granted came into existence, e.g. electric light, clean water or radio. I specifically loved the animations illustrating e.g. how the city of Chicago was lifted several feet to allow construction of the first sewer system in the US.

Mina Kim, Steven Johnson and Biz Stone at KQED (source: Tom Olson, KQED, via Twitter)

In the post-preview discussion at KQED, led by Mina Kim, Johnson was joined by Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, who contributed some of his own experience with innovation. While Johnson addressed more profound questions, e.g. the different time scales of technological and cultural change, Stone emphasized how his projects typically produce results very different from what he had imagined at the beginning: Twitter was originally a fun side project while his team was working on a podcasting platform (that was eventually abandoned).

The first episode of the television show will be broadcast on October 15th, 2014 and Johnson promises fun for eleven-year olds ("It has sewers in it !") as well as grown ups: "We present a different story about every five minutes, which you can tell at dinner parties. Just like I did for the last three years".

If you miss the TV show, you can also check out the book.