You should use this opportunity to recommend an especially high-quality introduction/overview of modern history of science, approachable by a curious outsider.
Diving straight into books can be hard, since academics write for other academics.
But I recommend works by Paula Findlen and Tom Mullaney highly! Mullaney's work pushes back against a whole bunch of myths about the chinese language and its effect on technological innovation. Findlen's work covers both the history of technologies but also the technology of communication and the nature of information in the Renaissance period. Mullaney is weirdly involved on social media so that can be more approachable and Findlen's work is on the readable side for academic history.
The world is so much more complex than "a new idea is created from the ether, people criticize it, and then a paradigm shift happens and it takes over the world".
But I recommend works by Paula Findlen and Tom Mullaney highly! Mullaney's work pushes back against a whole bunch of myths about the chinese language and its effect on technological innovation. Findlen's work covers both the history of technologies but also the technology of communication and the nature of information in the Renaissance period. Mullaney is weirdly involved on social media so that can be more approachable and Findlen's work is on the readable side for academic history.
The world is so much more complex than "a new idea is created from the ether, people criticize it, and then a paradigm shift happens and it takes over the world".