How to invent everything was a bit too hand wavy for me. It would barely scratch the surface of a topic (like making steel) and declare "and now you've invented steel" so that it could move on to help you invent other things now that you have steel ignoring the time and labor and trial and error required to reliably produce steel (which could be years).

If you like that thought experiment though (reinventing society from scratch) I recommend the anime Dr. Stone and the YouTube channel Primitive Technology.

Also The Design of Everyday Things:

https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expand...

My attention has lately turned to the possibilities offered by ‘new’ materials, especially ceramics. I have a hunch that 40% of everything the industry produces with metals could be built with oxides and rare earths [not so rare, actually]. New materials force redefinitions in shapes and textures. A completely new world of shapes and textures will appear in the coming years/decades.

The deterioration of the online environment in recent years has made me turn my eyes to the world of tangible things. Reality has a reassuring character. In the last few years I have become a maker of real things[0] and I have been happy that way. I am also enchanted by the beauty of certain forms created by human industry.

(!)This links to my blog, so I’m breaking the url so as not to be accused of spamming the board.

[0]h\ps://voxleone.com/2024/03/05/3d-printing-im-making-a-500c-ceramic-hot-end/

Reminds me of The Internet from Rocks at https://julian.bearblog.dev/the-internet-from-rocks/.

Interesting. I just yesterday talked about this book with a friend during coffee. If you read this, good morning Sveniboi.