Things That Made the Modern Economy

BBC Radio 4 FM

Original version

BBC Radio 4 LW

Factual

Inventions, ideas and innovations that have helped to create the modern economic world

Tim Harford introduces inventions, ideas and innovations that have helped to create the modern economic world

Things That Made the Modern Economy: Series 2: Spreadsheet

Spreadsheet

Series 2

BBC Radio 4 - Things That Made the Modern Economy, Series 2, Spreadsheet

The digital spreadsheet: a technology which took the world of accountancy by storm.

The digital spreadsheet: a technology which took the world of accountancy by storm in the early 1980s and made countless accounting tasks effortless.

What does a robot accountant look like? Not C-3PO, or Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator, I’d suggest. It looks more like a grid on a computer screen: the digital spreadsheet, a technology which took the world of accountancy by storm in the early 1980s and made countless accounting tasks effortless. We should all spend more time pondering the spreadsheet because, as Tim Harford explains, in that four-decade-old technology lies a glimpse of what automation is really likely to do to all of our jobs.  

Producer: Ben Crighton
Editor: Richard Vadon

Things That Made the Modern Economy: Series 2

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

More inventions, ideas and innovations that helped to create the modern economic world.

More inventions, ideas and innovations that have helped to create the modern economic world.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Things That Made the Modern Economy

Series 2

Spreadsheet

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4