would brunel have done more or less in his lifetime if he’d had the internet?
looking at how much he achieved and people like him in their lifetimes would they have been able to do that if they were surfing for p*rn or sat on forums like this? is there a balance between the amount of distraction and the time saving as so much info is out there already?
just a thought

Not really a viable comparison. There was so much less knowledge at that time for the internet to be a distraction.

I read up about him.

He was well known for enjoying one off the wrist at any time, I reckon he could have dealt with internet porn addiction.

You have to ask what some of stw’s most prolific posters could achieve if they harnessed their energy as well.

Brunel was out there making the world were the internet could exist and if he’d had access to the net he would also have had the HSE to contend with which would have stopped just about everything he achieved

”ooh, theres a small crack in a weld, will I need a new frame/ bridge”?

Posted by
Rails_are_singletrack_too.

ah but kevj how do you know there was less knowledge or was it just different knowledge.
the HSE topic is one i’d not thought of and would have put paid to the pyramids let alone most of the 19th century.
i look at the kids i teach and wonder if any of them could, if given the opportunity go on to change the world and unfortunately most of them give the answer no. this is in part because of the web and them thinking well it’s all been done already.
it upsets me because their imagination is dying a million deaths on the sword of junk.
ho hum rant over.

the HSE comment is an interesting one. I would reckon that for both Brunel’s masterpieces and the pyramids there were a large number of deaths and many more serious injuries – certainly many more than there would be today. So the conundrum is/was that a price worth paying?

The other contrast between back then and now is inequality of society. In Victorian times poor people were so very very poor that you could hire thousands of them to build stuff, make your materials and mine your ores and the super rich people could still afford it.

Nowadays many of their amazing buildings would be far too expensive to build – this is a good thing.

Although this applies less to Brunel since most of his stuff was roads and bridges etc, and their benefit to the economy has multiplied many times compared with then.