Textiles: Humanity’s early tech boom

1. What does Virginia Postrel think about human intelligence in every piece of cloth?

• a) She thinks it is overrated.
• b) She thinks it is underestimated.
• c) She thinks it is irrelevant.
• d) She thinks it is unpredictable.

2. What are some examples of textiles mentioned in the video?

• a) Clothes, medical bandages, and tents
• b) Cars, aeroplanes, and computers
• c) Food, water, and air
• d) Books, pencils, and paper

3. What led to the Industrial Revolution?

• a) The invention of the loom
• b) The mechanization of the spinning of thread
• c) The discovery of electricity
• d) The development of the steam engine

4. What do human beings want from textiles?

• a) Functionality only
• b) Identity, status, and beauty
• c) Comfort and warmth
• d) Durability and strength

5. What is the connection between technology, textile, and text?

• a) They all come from different roots.
• b) They all come from the same Indo-European root.
• c) They all have no connection.
• d) They all have a connection to the goddess Athena.

6. What is an heirloom?

• a) A valuable thing passed down in families
• b) A type of loom used for weaving
• c) A type of cloth made by hand
• d) A type of thread used for sewing

7. What was the bottleneck in textile production before the Industrial Revolution?

• a) The lack of skilled workers
• b) The lack of raw materials
• c) The lack of technology
• d) The lack of demand

8. What was the reason for the Luddite riots?

• a) They had an ideological opposition to technology.
• b) They were losing their jobs to power looms.
• c) They wanted better working conditions.
• d) They wanted higher wages.

9. What was the earlier technological innovation and disruption that led to the Luddites having great weaving jobs?

• a) The invention of the power loom
• b) The mechanization of the spinning of thread
• c) The discovery of electricity
• d) The development of the steam engine

10. What does the fact that human beings independently discovered different processes for making cloth show?

• a) People are not smart.
• b) People are unpredictable.
• c) People are really smart.
• d) People are not interested in textiles.