I have been reading Steven Johnson’s fabulous “The Invention of Air” which has made me aware of many connections I had never previously known existed. In a funny way it also provided a really useful perspective on something I have been thinking about recently: the future of music. Steven writes at length about what spurs “runs” of new ideas in science and identifies advances in technology as one contributor (in the case of Priestly notably the ability to pump air). What happens then is that n...

I have been reading Steven Johnson’s fabulous “The Invention of Air” which has made me aware of many connections I had never previously known existed. In a funny way it also provided a really useful perspective on something I have been thinking about recently: the future of music. Steven writes at length about what spurs “runs” of new ideas in science and identifies advances in technology as one contributor (in the case of Priestly notably the ability to pump air). What happens then is that n...