Innovation Richter Scale: How Much Do Technology and Ideas Change World History?

Innovations have huge impacts on humanity. We build out a system to rank world change.Everything seems so important these days:This war will BREAK the economyIf you feed your toddler THIS, you don't deserve to be a parentA new iPhone update changes EVERYTHING...We sense check what matters to humanity and what is just noise.It's easy to tell that the invention of Writing itself is more important than Velcro. But...Is Netflix more important than Baseball?Has TikTok changed the world as much as the Longbow?Was Steve Jobs more impactful than Henry VIII?History has opinions.So it's time to build a scale that lets us rationally measure global impact.Introducing the Innovation Richter Scale. A 1 to 10 rating system that lets you rank absolutely anything you can think of.NOTE - This episode expands on the Technological Richter Scale proposed by Nate Silver.ABOUTHow to Change the World is an independent podcast on a mission to document the entire history of innovation. One world-changing event at a time. In the process we are building out frameworks and mental models to think more coherently about global change.Learn more and contact us - ChangeTheWorldPod.comWritten, edited, recorded, and produced by Sam Webster Harris. (incl the music)Help from:Designs - Francisca Correia (available to hire)Mentorship - Jeremy Enns (available to hire)ReferencesNate Silver - One The Edge (2024)Nate's book is about risk analysis and the future of AI. The final chapter proposes a Technological Richter Scale, with a page on how to use it.Zvi Mowshowitz - AI and the Technological Richter Scale (2025)A good summary of Nate's ideas, on how the scale applies to AI. Also quotes Nate's page guide for each level and argues a few changes.Chapters:00:00 Innovation Richter Scale01:47 Why create a Scale?03:47 Earthquake Metaphor06:16 Invention, Innovation, Technology06:56 Ranking Magnitude not Morality08:08 The Innovation Richter Scale - Level 1 - 1008:11 Level 1 - Shower thoughts08:29 Level 2 - Actioned Idea (In private)08:49 Level 3 - Public ideas (Not popular)10:17 Level 4 - Popular and commercial ideas11:08 Level 5 - Defining Brand12:38 Level 6 - Innovation of the year15:59 Level 7 - Innovation of the Decade18:19 Level 8 - Innovation of the Century21:29 Level 9 - Innovation of the Era23:53 Level 10 - Species Epoch28:31 Part 2 - Using the scale29:45 Weapons & Tools of Death - Brands, Categories and Concepts33:58 Politics & Population Impact - Local, Continental and Global38:00 Questions without answers38:38 Sports & Religion - Emotional Impact and Purpose41:01 Peter Thiel and Chess41:47 Religion and Personal Beliefs in interpreting the scale43:33 Roundup conclusions Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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If you want to change the world, you need to dissect the past to build a blueprint for tomorrow.Follow the epic journey through the history of invention, science and technology - told in chronological order.---Long before the rise of Empires,before the invention of the written wordand before humans ever tamed fire.Curiosity was shaping the fate of our species.This podcast breaks down the messy, complicated, often accidental ways humanity pushes forward—and shows you exactly how you can do the same.This isn’t surface-level history.Starting at the dawn of civilisation, we trace the thread of human innovation in the order it happened. Covering the stories of the world's greatest inventors and most powerful ideas.Each episode is a masterclass - with all the nerdy details and side-quests that matter across science, economics, psychology and more:From Maritime navigation to Interstellar explorationHammurabi’s legal code to Algorithmic governanceDa Vinci’s human dissection to Genome editingStudying the patterns of history and invention shows how every world-changing idea is but a conversation between what has been and what could be.Journey with us as we untangle the playbooks of the disruptors who change things here on earth and beyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.