#historiography

Tagged historiography · show all articles

A brass tide-predicting machine on a varnished bench, a steel wire running over a row of graded pulleys to a hanging counterweight, its pen arm caught mid-stroke laying a tide curve onto the turning paper drum

The Machine Before Electronics

Tide predictors, differential analysers, nomograms and fire-control computers were not curiosities on the way to the transistor. They were a working tradition with its own theory of what a number is.

By Brecht Corbeel · August 9, 2026 · 20 min read

A large brass dividing wheel on a cast-iron base in a bright workshop, with a slim cutting frame caught part-way down a single division stroke on a brass limb clamped to the plate, fresh graduations stepping away behind the cutter and plain arc still ahead of it

Scientific Revolution

Instruments Before Theory

Across the scientific revolution and after, the capacity to make an instrument repeatedly arrived first and forced explanation to catch up — a tendency, not a law, and one historians still argue about.

By Brecht Corbeel · August 9, 2026 · 17 min read

Browse by Category

Surprise me →

All AI Hardware & Semiconductors 100 AI Agents & Systems 33 Foundation Models 27 Model Evaluation 15 AI Industry 9 Edge AI & Electronics 7 AI Safety 7 AI Research 7 Open Models 6 AI Infrastructure 5 Industry Analysis 2 Datacenters & Infrastructure 2 Writing & Information 1 Structural Biology 1 Small & Edge Models 1 Semiconductor Markets 1 Security & Technology 1 Security 1 Scientific Revolution 1 Robotics & Embodied AI 1 Quantum Information 1 Planetary Science 1 Physics 1 Particle Physics 1 Origins & Astrobiology 1 Open-Weight Models 1 Neuroscience 1 Metrology 1 Mathematics & Computation 1 Materials Science 1 Labour & Technology 1 Interpretability 1 Institutions & State Capacity 1 Institutions & Economy 1 Inference Economics 1 Industrial Revolutions 1 Humanity & Technology 1 History of Technology 1 History of Computing 1 Governance & Policy 1 Evolution & Ecology 1 Ethics of Technology 1 Energy & Civilization 1 Earth & Climate 1 Demography & Urbanization 1 Data & Training 1 Cumulative Culture 1 Cosmology 1 Condensed Matter 1 Chemistry & Catalysis 1 Alignment & Safety 1 Agriculture & Cities 1 Agent Evaluation 1 AI Security 1 AI & The Web 1