How the sewing machine got us … software : Planet Money Book tour tickets and details here.Today, the story of three inventions. The first, the sewing machine, was created by a selfish and ambitious inventor who wanted all the credit and was willing to fig...

I talked with Planet Money @planetmoney.bsky.social last month about the sewing machine patent pool & how it led to video on our phones & more. @samkesler.bsky.social & @erikaberas.bsky.social told this story so well:
npr.org/2026/02/11/nx-s1-5707856/singer-sewing-machine-patent-pool-antitrust-mpeg

My article, Complexity Creep, will be published in the Iowa Law Review. It's been up on SSRN @ssrn.bsky.social for a bit - happy to hear from anyone who's thinking about these issues too. Thanks to the editors at the Iowa Law Review. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

That is a such an interesting connection! I’d never thought of it maybe because I usually focus so much on the legal plumbing (the patent pools). But Jacquard really is the other half of this textile-to-tech lineage. It’s so fascinating to think that modern computing is rooted in fabric-making!

If you want to understand why your phone can play video files, you have to look at 19th-century sewing machines.

I spent some time with @planetmoney.bsky.social discussing the Sewing Machine War and patent pools and cooperation. Thank you, @samkesler.bsky.social @erikaberas.bsky.social.