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The Antikythera Mechanism
danny_galaga:
--- Quote from: Ummon on November 21, 2009, 11:36:07 pm ---1. Geometry was around 2500 years ago. There's an old story, which is actually in Cosmos, about one of the guys back then that noticed the shadows pillars separated a bit from each other indicated a round world. They could do killer stone work, and could forge things out of metal. (They had the elements of steam power, too - I think I also read this in Cosmos.)
2. some of these examples, though, do require extraordinary knowledge, which could've easily been passed down by non-terrestrial creatures.
--- End quote ---
Or perhaps it's just further proof that we were smarter earlier than we give ourselves credit for. And that there was a good reason that part of Western history is called the 'dark ages' ;)
RayB:
Ummon, you and Xiau2 should get together. ::)
It's not frikkin space aliens! Geesh. The average joe today is no more "intelligent" than the average joe from any given period in the last thousands of years. THe difference is the amount of knowledge and the tools at our disposal that create this illusion. The difference is access to education, being able to read, and not being killed or imprisoned by religious or superstitious ruling class. Also what we achieve is always built upon previous knowledge and achievements, so of course this progress is exponential and seems especially accellerated in the last 100 years.
Imagine Einstein born 2000 years ago to a peasant or slave class family and never learning to read because the priority is daily survival. The assumption may be that a "genius" rises above all and achieves greatness, but this isn't the case. The few geniuses we've had in ancient (and not so ancient) times thrived thanks to ruling class benefactors. Just think how many great minds never were thanks to being killed by a life of slavery, or by religious or superstitious zealots.
Here is a timely perfect example:
http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_demos_the_13th_century_astrolabe.html
danny_galaga:
--- Quote from: RayB on November 22, 2009, 07:56:20 pm ---
Here is a timely perfect example:
http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_demos_the_13th_century_astrolabe.html
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That was a good little lecture (",) Thanks for the link.
drventure:
--- Quote ---Thanks for the link.
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Indeed. I'd always wondered how astrolabes work. Guess I could have looked it up but that vid explained it nicely.
I'd sure love to have one of those replicas!
ChadTower:
--- Quote from: danny_galaga on November 22, 2009, 06:02:44 am ---Or perhaps it's just further proof that we were smarter earlier than we give ourselves credit for. And that there was a good reason that part of Western history is called the 'dark ages' ;)
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That's my take on all of this. Human technology, and intelligence, was moving along pretty smoothly for a long time. Then religion came into popularity. Do the math on the timelines from then on.
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