I also love this stuff — 7 out of 10 for me.

It leads me to wonder what are the important technologies in the world. What helps humanity the most, what might be most profitable for an individual. What can you create with the most readily available raw materials? What pieces of 21st century knowledge are useful as an individual, what is useful only with widespread acceptance and application?

To illustrate:

Understanding germ theory could keep me healthier, but until it is widely applied the “herd” could still easily make me sick.

I can use a magnet to generate electricity, but what would I do with resultant power? There would be no way to produce anything like solid-state electronics.

A steam engine is interesting but not as useful as a train — which requires steel and a track infrastructure.

It also gets me thinking about how we can create our technology in a way that can survive a retreat of resources — how to have our civilization continue past conflicts and disasters.

I just love thinking about history, humanity and technology on a large timescale.