Is the invention of a steam carriage in the Wheel of Time series the first sign that a new age may soon be dawning?

[Caelan Arendor]

I believe that the invention ot the steam carriage - though not at all functioning yet properly (I believe it exploded after a short while 😘) could indeed be seen as one of the first clear signs that a new Age is about to dawn. It represents the shift from a world reliant on the One Power to one rediscovering technological innovation. Is there another epoch-making invention, perhaps in medicine, that would herald the New Age? Maybe I have overlooked something..gunpowder and its use came later in the story.

[HeavyHalfMoonBlade]

The steam engines are already travelling from Cairhien to Tear before the Final Battle. 

 

Something of a pet peeve of mine. That isn't how these things work, that you have an industrial revolution because someone just thinks up an invention. You need a whole bunch of prerequisites. An evolution of ideas and circumstances. Near unique circumstances to make each step worth taking on the road to industrialisation. It isn't down to British genius that it happened there, but geography and geology and rudimentary patent system and a few other factors. Not one guy inventing an efficient steam engine on his own - and mass producing it - that can immediately be put on unprepared roads for hundreds of leagues without incident. 

 

Bah. It gets me annoyed just thinking about it. 

 

But however incredulous it is, it is questionable how desirable industrialisation would be in a world with the One Power, or whether it could combine with the One Power to make something better (like I think the lack of pollution is mentioned in story by the One Power being able to deal with waste on a molecular level). Do they need to develop new ways of transport with Travelling available? Would they put up with children and workers being chewed up by machinery in horrible factories (sunken screws were invented due to the occurrence of screws catching on clothing and dragging workers into the machinery, including child workers). 

 

Personally I think it was a conceit to include the invention of the steam engine due to Rand's largess. To big an advance not properly thought through. Same with cannons being invented immediately as devasting weapons instead of being an evolution from useful but limited weapons gaining in lethality over time. 

 

But the Final Battle marks the End of the Age. The cannons and steam engines, along with non-insane male channelers point to how the Age will shape up, without giving much clarity on the details. 

Edited Monday at 08:07 PM by HeavyHalfMoonBlade

[Elgee]

The first time I read the part where that guy (can't remember his name) was busy inventing the steam engine, I thought to myself "oh well there goes this world - it'll end up over-populated and polluted like we are now". It was the saddest moment of the whole series, for me.