Killer Applications

Killer applications have important first-order effects, but their second-order effects are even more far-reaching – as well as being unintended.

Examples of Killer Applications..........The arch, the pulley, the compass, eyeglasses, moveable type, the steam engine, the cotton gin, asphalt, the Model T, elevators structural steel, the atomic bomb: inventions whose impact has extended far beyond the activities for which their creators built them. The havoc they visited on social, political, and economic systems has outweighed the impact of their intended usage.

The Stirrup:

The stirrup was perhaps the most important of the medieval killers apps, which the Franks -- Germanic tribes who ruled central Europe after the fall of Rome -- adopted from an Asian design. The stirrup made it possible for a mounted fighter to strike with his lance without falling off his horse, greatly increasing the force what could be put behind such a blow. It proved decisive in the Frank's' efforts to turn back the marauding Saracens who invaded Western Europe in the eighth century, despite the superior numbers of the invaders.

Charles Martel, leader of the Franks, understood from his victory that the stirrup hadn't simply improved the effectiveness of his forces, as a new weapon or fighting formation might have done. Rather, it changed his entire military strategy. Stirrups made possible a mounted cavalry, a new element in the battle equation, and Charles Martel immediately made them a permanent feature.

Neither Charles Martel nor his descendants probably recognized the longer-term impact of their new technology. To support the specialized fighters of a cavalry, Charles Martel created a new class of landed gentry who had sufficient income from the land he gave them to provide men, horses, and expertise. To do this, he seized some of the vast holdings of the Catholic church, permanently altering relations between medieval church and state. He also created a social and political system in which farming peasants were answerable not only to the king but to the landlords, who became known as knights. In the end, the Pope crowned Charles Martel’s grandson Charlemagne the first Holy Roman Emperor, an acknowledgment of the new world order.

Thus the lowly stirrup played a singular role in rearranging the political, social, and economic structure of medieval Europe. The Holy Roman Empire, in some form, lasted until World War I. Feudalism, the social and economic system that emerged to support the mounted troops, at the time represented a sudden and violent break from tradition. It persisted for nearly a thousand years, long after the actual advantage of the stirrup in battle had been supplanted by numerous other developments. Few inventions have been so simple as the stirrup, but few had had so cataclysmic an influence on history.

Killer apps have important first-order effects, but their second-order effects are even more far-reaching – as well as being unintended.

The stirrup was perhaps the most important of the medieval killers apps, which the Franks -- Germanic tribes who ruled central Europe after the fall of Rome -- adopted from an Asian design. The stirrup made it possible for a mounted fighter to strike with his lance without falling off his horse, greatly increasing the force what could be put behind such a blow. It proved decisive in the Frank's' efforts to turn back the marauding Saracens who invaded Western Europe in the eighth century, despite the superior numbers of the invaders.

Charles Martel, leader of the Franks, understood from his victory that the stirrup hadn't simply improved the effectiveness of his forces, as a new weapon or fighting formation might have done. Rather, it changed his entire military strategy. Stirrups made possible a mounted cavalry, a new element in the battle equation, and Charles Martel immediately made them a permanent feature.

Neither Charles Martel nor his descendants probably recognized the longer-term impact of their new technology. To support the specialized fighters of a cavalry, Charles Martel created a new class of landed gentry who had sufficient income from the land he gave them to provide men, horses, and expertise. To do this, he seized some of the vast holdings of the Catholic church, permanently altering relations between medieval church and state. He also created a social and political system in which farming peasants were answerable not only to the king but to the landlords, who became known as knights. In the end, the Pope crowned Charles Martel’s grandson Charlemagne the first Holy Roman Emperor, an acknowledgment of the new world order.

Thus the lowly stirrup played a singular role in rearranging the political, social, and economic structure of medieval Europe. The Holy Roman Empire, in some form, lasted until World War I. Feudalism, the social and economic system that emerged to support the mounted troops, at the time represented a sudden and violent break from tradition. It persisted for nearly a thousand years, long after the actual advantage of the stirrup in battle had been supplanted by numerous other developments. Few inventions have been so simple as the stirrup, but few had had so cataclysmic an influence on history.


The Welsh Longbow:

From the thirteenth until the sixteenth century, the national weapon of the English army was the longbow. It was this weapon which conquered Wales and Scotland, gave the English their victories in the Hundred Years War, and permitted England to replace France as the foremost military power in Medieval Europe. The longbow was the machine gun of the Middle Ages: accurate, deadly, possessing a long-range and rapid rate of fire, the flight of its missiles was compared to a storm. Cheap and simple enough for the common person own and master, it made him superior to a knight on the field of battle.

An early 14th century English inquiry into the murder of Simon de Skeltington records the instrument of death as an arrow shot from a five foot seven inch bow. "The wound measured three inches long by two inches wide and six inches deep". This was the powerful weapon used in the Hundred Years War.

Authorities believe the weapon drew between 80 and 110 pounds.

A bow of that strength would project a war arrow a long distance although; no one is sure how far. Estimates range from the war arrow having an effective range of 180 yards to 200 yards to a useful range of 249 yards.

The longbow, because of its rapidity of fire, was a medieval machine gun. A bowman of the Hundred Years War period could shoot 10 to 12 arrows a minute. The closest weapon in range and strength to the longbow was the crossbow but even the Genoese composite crossbow - made of wood, horn, sinew and glue - was no match for the English weapon. After firearms were introduced into continental warfare "archers were able to discharge four or five arrows apiece before the harquebusies shall be ready to discharge one bullet..


Encyclopedia Britannica and how the CD-ROM changed its world:

In the early 1990s, Microsoft's Bill Gates approached Encyclopedia Britannica about creating a digital version of its leading encyclopedia, to be delivered on the increasingly cheap medium of CD-ROM. Britannica, concerned that licensing content would jeopardize the high margin market for their printed books, turned him down. So Gates created his own encyclopedia, Encarta, using content from Funk and Wagnalls and public domain audio and visuals. From the beginning Encarta was published exclusively in digital form. Not only is the multimedia product more engaging than the cold text, it is cheaper to produce and distribute ($1.50 to press the CD-ROM versus $250 to print the book), and easily updated as well.

Within eighteen months, Microsoft Encarta became the best selling encyclopedia in the world. Britannica saw its own market collapse. Britannica approached Gates about reconsidering his deal. The meeting ended when Gates informed the company that his market research showed that the Britannica brand name now had negative value in the new interactive encyclopedia market and that the company would need to pay him to use his product. Since then, Britannica has changed hands, several times, eliminated its direct sales force, and struggled to gain market share with a competing CD-ROM product, initially prices at $1,000.