You’re probably reading this on a smartphone while sitting in a room with regulated air. Or maybe you're on a bus, checking the time on a digital watch that’s synced to an atomic clock. We take this stuff for granted. We really do. But if you’ve ever watched the PBS How We Got to Now series, you know that your morning coffee and your high-speed internet are actually the result of some seriously weird, often accidental history.
Steven Johnson, the guy who hosts the show, doesn't just talk about "great men" in wigs. He talks about the "hummingbird effect." Basically, it’s the idea that an innovation in one field—like, say, how to make a better piece of glass—ends up triggering a massive, unpredictable change in something totally unrelated, like the way we view the universe or even ourselves.
It’s not just a history lesson. Honestly, it’s a bit of a trip.
The Hummingbird Effect Explained (Simply)
So, what is this hummingbird thing? Johnson uses the actual hummingbird as a metaphor. Long ago, flowers evolved to have specific shapes. To get the nectar, some birds had to evolve a very specific way of flying—hovering. The flower changed the bird.
In the world of PBS How We Got to Now, technology works the same way.
Take the printing press. Gutenberg wanted to make Bibles. Simple enough, right? But suddenly, everyone in Europe was trying to read. And they realized they couldn't see the tiny letters. They were farsighted. This created a massive demand for spectacles.
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Because people started wearing lenses on their faces, the glass industry exploded. That led to the microscope, which let us see germs. Then came the telescope, which let us see the stars. Suddenly, we weren't the center of the universe anymore. All because some guy wanted to print a few books. That’s the hummingbird effect in action.
The Six Pillars of Modernity
The show is broken down into six specific themes. It's not a chronological timeline of "first this happened, then that." It's more of a web.
1. Clean
We used to be filthy. Like, "dying of cholera every Tuesday" filthy. In the "Clean" episode, Johnson dives into how Chicago was literally raised up—using jackscrews—to build a sewer system. But the kicker? Our obsession with clean water eventually led to the "clean rooms" needed to manufacture microchips. Without 19th-century sewers, you don't get the iPhone.
2. Time
Before the late 1800s, every town had its own time. If the sun was overhead in your village, it was noon. If you traveled ten miles west, it was... something else. This was fine until trains started crashing into each other because they were on different schedules. We had to standardize time just to keep the locomotives from exploding. Now, we have GPS satellites that are so precise they have to account for relativity.
3. Glass
This one is arguably the most important. Glass gave us mirrors, which gave us the "selfie" (well, the Renaissance version). It gave us the fiberglass cables that carry the internet across the ocean. Johnson travels to Murano, Italy, to show how secrets of glassmaking were guarded like nuclear codes.
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4. Light
Artificial light changed when we sleep. It sounds minor, but it's massive. We used to have "first sleep" and "second sleep," waking up for a few hours in the middle of the night to chat or work. The lightbulb killed that. It also paved the way for neon, which created the "spectacle" of places like Las Vegas.
5. Cold
This isn't just about frozen peas. The mastery of "Cold" allowed for the mass migration of people to the Sun Belt. Phoenix and Miami wouldn't exist as major cities without air conditioning. It also gave us the ability to store human embryos.
6. Sound
The "Sound" episode is wild. It covers everything from the first recording of a human voice (which the inventor didn't even think to play back!) to the way ultrasound changed medicine. It’s about how we turned vibrations into data.
Why Does This Show Still Rank So High?
People are still searching for PBS How We Got to Now because it offers a "long zoom" perspective. Most news is about what happened five minutes ago. This show is about what happened 500 years ago and how it's currently vibrating in your pocket.
It also avoids the "lone genius" myth.
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We love to say Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb. He didn't. Not really. He was one of about twenty people working on it. He was just the one who figured out the business model and the right filament. Johnson emphasizes that innovation is a team sport, often played across centuries.
What Most People Get Wrong About Innovation
We think ideas are "eureka" moments. We picture a cartoon lightbulb popping over someone's head. In reality, ideas are more like "the adjacent possible."
You can’t invent a microwave in the year 1600. The "adjacent" technologies—electricity, vacuum tubes, radar—don't exist yet. You have to wait for the rooms around you to be built before you can open the next door. PBS How We Got to Now shows that history is just a series of people opening doors and being surprised by what’s on the other side.
How to Apply These Lessons Today
If you're a creator, an entrepreneur, or just someone who wants to understand the world, there are some pretty solid takeaways here.
- Look for the ripples: Don't just look at what a new tech does. Look at what it enables. If AI changes how we write, what does that do to how we think or how we value truth?
- Collaborate outside your bubble: The best ideas in the show came from "cross-pollination." Glassmakers talking to scientists. Railway clerks talking to astronomers.
- Embrace the mess: Innovation is rarely a straight line. It’s usually a series of "brilliant mistakes."
To really get the most out of the PBS How We Got to Now philosophy, try this: pick one object in your room. A window, a clock, a soda can. Trace its history back at least three steps. You'll quickly realize that you are surrounded by "everyday miracles" that required thousands of people to cooperate over hundreds of years.
If you want to dive deeper, you should check out Steven Johnson’s companion book of the same name. It fills in the gaps that the TV show had to gloss over for time. Then, start looking for the "adjacent possible" in your own life—what’s the one door you can open today that wasn't there yesterday?