Member-only story
“Europe has had no major technical innovations the last 60 years”
Has Europe stood still since the invention of steam engines and spinning jenny? A critical look at popular myths around innovation in Europe.
THIS STORY was inspired by the frequent American claims and assumption that pretty much everything that belongs to the modern world was invented in the US and that Europe is a technological backwater. So let us actually look at some inventions and innovations which has come out of Europe in modern history.
A Twitter user challenged Europeans to name two major technological inventions done in Europe in the last 60 years. He insisted that people could not come up with even a single example. What do such assumptions say about the American educational system, or perhaps more about how American media portrays the rest of the world?
It is certainly not an isolated incident. I remember moving from Norway to the US over 20 years ago to study. The assumption that I would be completely unaware of modern technology such as internet, cell phones, CD players etc. seemed pretty common.
Anyway let us look at some European innovations in different categories.
