The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress. Is a good book by Joel Mokyr, which I found through a reference to it in David Landes magisterial "The Wealth and Poverty of Nations." Both books have lots of concrete examples of the evolution of technology and its economic impact. It is chock full of great quotes:
[The dynamic forces of technology and the conservative forces of ceremony and ritual] oppose each other in dialectical fashion, and what is required for technological creativity is the right blend of accumulated knowledge of past generations and the ability to shed the stifling burden of past institutions. pg 190
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