A Realistic Full Self-Drive Scenario
Not the stupid one.
We all understand how nuts and screws work. We use them to fasten things together with a few simple twists. Humans have been using nuts and screws as fasteners since at least the Third Century BCE. Archimedes used them for devices that could pump water. As screws came into common use, artisans arose with the skill to precisely cut the threads into screws. This was done using various labor-intensive techniques, many of which were held in deep secrecy.
In 1770 Jesse Ramsden developed the first commercially practical screw-cutting lathe. It wasn’t strictly a machine that made screws, it was more of a screw copying machine. He had to start with one of the old handmade screws, but he could use his machine to pop out hundreds of exact duplicates of that screw. With that, a manufacturer could produce more of the machines that required that screw. Those screws cost less and were nearly identical, so that the devices that used them could be more precise and uniform.
With all this progress, there was still a problem. Copies of screws were fine but if you were building a product, you couldn’t go to any “screw-wright” and ask for a standard…
