Jim O’Brien: The scope of human ingenuity is truly miraculous... especially if you don’t even understand how a kettle works!
Jim O’Brien: The scope of human ingenuity is truly miraculous... especially if you don’t even understand how a kettle works! I am are surrounded by miracles. From the moment I wake in the morning until John O’Dreams takes me away at night, the wonders of the natural world and the extraordinary achievements of human ingenuity mark every part of my day. The radio wakes me. I have no idea how it works. It is a wonder that people sitting in a building in Dublin are having conversations I can listen into 150 miles away. And that’s just radio, one of the older technologies. When I rouse myself and make my way downstairs the first thing I reach for is the electric kettle, and it beats me as to how that works. At secondary school more than 40 years ago I learned about the basics of electricity, about AC and DC, but all is now lost in the attic of unused facts. I switch on my phone to read the morning headlines and haven’t the foggiest clue how it does what it does. According to my children I