Dear Jedediah Walls,

I have never heard of a tool like that. In my opinion, I think designing your own would be the best break through in your field. It is quite possible, if you know the basic principles of taxonomy i.e.  classification of species based on shared characteristics. You already have the timelines, the materials  used/invented, you the places of origin and modifications where applicable. An example that comes to my mind something like this: wheels-  group according to material used for wheel, spokes present or not, size of wheels etc.

A "tree" structure makes a lot of sense for most carbon-based life forms because we all come from parents.  There is some horizontal gene transfer but the core of most genomes evolved from ancestors in a tree-like manner.   Technology and human social evolution is far more network-like.  Automobiles today are not just descendants of the Ford Model A, they use plastics and other materials from the materials sciences, computers to control the engine from the computer sciences, aerodynamic design from aerospace research and so on.  Thinking in terms of "tree" structures may impose limits on your ideas that a network design would not.   See for example: https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2015/04/04/categorical-foundations-of-network-theory/

Hi Jedediah

It's a great idea, right now I have a couple of ideas to do that. If you are interested we could try it. [email protected]

I am indeed working on this for Future Emerging Technologies for Energy supply, hierarchically organizing them into a taxonomy. Please ask me for more details.

Best, Alberto