Magister Ludi

Brad DeLong uncorks a showstopper of a post on efficiency of labor, with references to Oliver Wendell Holmes on eugenics, EE Smith, Cyteen and the inventions of Nicola Tesla.

Unfortunately, I only have half an hour of lecture--1/6 of one week--to talk about Tesla and company this fall--and I now easily have enough material outlined that I could now lecture for three weeks on science, invention, technology, popular culture, eugenics, and the idea of progress at the cusp of the 19th and 20th centuries. God knows if I will ever teach it or write it up--or if anybody would be interested if I did...