this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2024
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They're currently leapfrogging again, skipping the Industrial Revolution and going more or less directly from the primary economic sector (agriculture) to the tertiary one (services) thanks to tech import.
A while ago, I read a really fascinating article about how a lot of Africa's infrastructure is higher-tech on average (though less extensive currently) than many developed countries', because they've been putting in the 'new' stuff from the start, instead of having to tear up all the old landlines etc and replace it. Like how London was innovative in making gas lights, but because of that, ended up keeping them 'til the 1950s, when everyone else had swapped to electric.
The spread of technology is a fascinating thing!
I lived in Togo for 2 years and I noticed this. My go-to example was music: they skipped records, 8 tracks, cassette tapes, cds, and everyone went straight to having music on their phone.
In second-world countries like mine, we didn't skip technologies much but avoided format wars and just ended up with the winner:
If tech moves too fast, people get annoyed. Up until 2008, one could use just about any old TV, perhaps with a UHF-VHF converter and a PAL-decoding mod for SECAM sets. Now that they need a new digital tuner every few years because wireless and video tech is evolving fast and we're no longer staying behind, they keep complaining.
When I was in Benin there was quite a flourishing market in CDs (this was in 2002)
Similar with banking and mobile internet for much of Africa. Why get a landline when mobile exists. Much of less developed asia, too.