The progress narrative nourished this attitude because, as everyone knows, the best machines are the ones that are new and improved, and machines can always be improved. Societies shaped by the progress narrative had an advantage over others not so much because of the seminal tools they invented but because of the improvements and variations they kept making on those tools. Guns didn’t tilt the balance in conflicts between Muslim and European armies. The Muslims had guns too. Guns didn’t make the difference in China: the Chinese invented guns, for heaven’s sake. What set the Europeans apart
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