Twin Tracks: the Unexpected Origins of the Modern World.

JAMES BURKE 

Right now, someone unknown to you is doing something that will bring change to your life. You will do the same to others. This isn't fortune cookie philosophy. It's a systems approach to understanding history. Burke, a contributor to Scientific American, is fascinated with unintended consequences. Until recently, most people viewed history as a string of distinct events falling within independent themes. With the ability to gather and cross-reference immense amounts of data, scientists and historians can now track outcomes back to causes and intervening circumstances. For example, Burke links the opening of the Kit-Kat Club in London in 1703 to the advent of sunglasses in 1930, and the invention of Sanskrit to the creation of cybernetics. He shows how 25 of the most important artifacts of modern civilization grew out of unexpectedly cross-fertilized ideas. Each chapter begins with an event from the past and proceeds along two parallel historical paths to converge on a discovery years later. S&S, 2003, 276 p., hardcover, $24.00.