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Comment by libraryofbabel | Hacker News Reader

To be clear, I’m not saying the iPhone isn’t useful or valuable. It just simply does not compare to the key technologies of the 20th century in terms of transforming the basic parameters of human life on earth.

My favorite example is the Haber-Bosch process for fixing nitrogen and producing synthetic fertilizer (invented 1910). Surely a far more “undervalued” technology than the iPhone! It enabled us to scale up global food production to feed at least an extra 3.5 billion people who otherwise would never have been born, or would have starved.[1] Antibiotics are another great example. Several hundred million lives saved.

With respect, I think this is in a different league from saving some people a little time waiting in traffic.

[1] https://ourworldindata.org/how-many-people-does-synthetic-fe...

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My 99 year old grandma says that the greatest invention in her lifetime was the washing machine, freeing up an incredible number of labor and hours wasted every week in every household (and usually by women) for more productive tasks.

Haber-Bosch may be disrupting billions year old nitrogen cycle, which would qualify as 'hinge' for earth history.

https://www.resilience.org/stories/2019-04-29/nitrogen-crisi...

Different kind of improvement. A smartphone (not the bloody iPhone) has fundamentally changed everyone's life directly.

For the vast majority of people, food production is something that just "happens" out there. They don't grow anything, they just get it from a store.

I've seen people on the Internet who can't afford a simple boiler or an indoors toilet (but they have a phone/computer)... and that's sad, but also amazing.

I agree, they are different kinds of impact. That’s why I like to emphasize the Haber-Bosch process, because it is largely invisible. Mostly people have never heard of it.

Because the impact is different it’s very hard to compare. One interesting thought experiment that can help is to imagine the technology disappearing and think about what the consequences would be. Thinking that through for smartphones and the Haber-Bosch process is left as an exercise for the reader.

>My favorite example is the Haber-Bosch process for fixing nitrogen and producing synthetic fertilizer (invented 1910). Surely a far more “undervalued” technology than the iPhone! It enabled us to scale up global food production to feed at least an extra 3.5 billion people who otherwise would never have been born, or would have starved.

It also kept Germany going in WW1 far longer than otherwise, by compensating for blockades on saltpeter for explosives.

Oh sure. Technology is neither good, nor bad, nor is it neutral.

Lets also add vaccines to that. I also wish there were a process like Haber Bosch for phosporic fertilizer (of course it cant, since phospor is not in any quantity in the athmosphere)

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