Intel's team viewed their first microprocessor as an incremental improvement for building calculators, not a world-changing invention. The true revolution was sparked by outsiders who applied the technology in unforeseen ways, like building the first personal computers. This highlights that creators often cannot predict the true impact of their inventions.

Protestantism offered a direct route to heaven through good deeds and faith, eliminating the need to pay the Catholic Church for "indulgences." This reframes a major religious schism as an appealing financial proposition for a populace being heavily taxed for salvation.

In the 1970s, the prevailing culture was that software should be free and openly shared. Gates's deeply contrarian vision was to build a "software factory," creating an entirely new business model based on the conviction that the demand for high-quality, paid software would become nearly unlimited.

The Church has a tradition of embracing technological progress, from monks copying books to using the printing press and radio. The slow adoption of the internet is seen as an exception they are now trying to correct with AI.

Central banks evolved from gold warehouses that discovered they could issue more paper receipts (IOUs) than the gold they held, creating a fraudulent but profitable "fractional reserve." This practice was eventually co-opted by governments to fund their activities, not for economic stability.

The printing press, a technology financed by the Catholic Church to solidify its power, was weaponized by Martin Luther to dismantle that same power. By printing pamphlets with bullet-pointed arguments, he bypassed the establishment's information monopoly, acting as the first mass-media disruptor.

Major technological shifts create new industries in unpredictable ways. The spreadsheet automated manual financial modeling, revealing massive inefficiencies in companies. This enabled private equity firms to acquire businesses, streamline operations using this new tool, and extract value, effectively birthing the modern PE industry.

New technology can ignite violent conflict by making ideological differences concrete and non-negotiable. The printing press did this with religion, leading to one of Europe's bloodiest wars. AI could do the same by forcing humanity to confront divisive questions like transhumanism and the definition of humanity, potentially leading to similar strife.

Society celebrates figures like Edison for the 'idea' of the lightbulb, but his real breakthrough was in manufacturing a practical version. Similarly, Elon Musk's genius is arguably in revolutionizing manufacturing to lower space travel costs, a feat of logistics often overlooked in favor of visionary narratives.