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What would the world be like if these ancient scientists and engineers persisted and their science and craft carried on and developed further? Instead, the peri

What would the world be like if these ancient scientists and engineers persisted and their science and craft carried on and developed further? Instead, the period that followed gave rise to belief systems that still give us problems today. How very sad.

YeGoblynQueenne 10y ago
I'm keeping my hopes up that they formed a secret society and are guiding the world with a steady hand towards an enlightened future. (Then I read the news and cry in my corn flakes, of course.)
- kleer001 10y ago
  Well, maybe the news is just there to steer us towards a new and more glorious dawn. Due to the laws of thermodynamics I have little belief left for a beneficent (let alone malignant) secret society of any stripe. But I could be wrong. There are more things in heaven and earth and all that.
  - LeifCarrotson 10y ago
    Why would the laws of thermodynamics apply to a secret society?
    - JonnieCache 10y ago
      They're saying the second law of thermodynamics (in a closed system, entropy always increases) means a complex secret can't be kept for a long period of time: the tendency of life/the world towards chaos means that the truth will inevitably leak out. It's more a poetic application of statistical mechanics than a rigorous one.
- DanBC 10y ago
  Write it, it would make a great chapbook.
  - YeGoblynQueenne 10y ago
    If I find myself out of work, I'll give it a go :)
selestify 10y ago
Do we know why such expertise was lost in the first place? The collapse of the Roman empire wasn't for another couple centuries.
- tacos 10y ago
  It was a Greek device. Theory is that it was pilfered with the other artifacts found in the shipwreck, en route to Julius Caesar. Rough couple years to be a Greek scientist.
- tzs 10y ago
  Was it lost? Or did those who could build such a thing simply did not think it was worth doing so? The astronomy knowledge and the mechanical theory needed to make the Antikythera mechanism were well known in ancient times, and I don't think those were ever lost. The mystery of the Antikythera mechanism is how it was actually built. But do we know how long it took to build? If it was built in a short time frame, then yeah, the maker probably used techniques that were lost not too long afterward, and not rediscovered until maybe the 14th century. But what if it were built over a much longer time frame? It could have been someone's lifetime project. Then simple techniques might work. For instance, if you need a piece of metal shaped to very tight tolerances, just get it close and then use a hand file to very slowly make it what you need. If this were the case, I can easily imagine that plenty of people between the time it was made and the 14th century knew how to build one, but simply were not interested enough to make building it their life's work.
  - i_feel_great 10y ago
    Science is never lost, only suppressed.
    - sanoli 10y ago
      The history of scurvy is pretty interesting: http://mentalfloss.com/article/24149/how-scurvy-was-cured-then-cure-was-lost http://mentalfloss.com/article/24149/how-scurvy-was-cured-th...
    - 10y ago
TruthAndDare 10y ago
> and their science and craft carried on And their gods too?

YeGoblynQueenne 10y ago

I'm keeping my hopes up that they formed a secret society and are guiding the world with a steady hand towards an enlightened future. (Then I read the news and cry in my corn flakes, of course.)

kleer001 10y ago
Well, maybe the news is just there to steer us towards a new and more glorious dawn. Due to the laws of thermodynamics I have little belief left for a beneficent (let alone malignant) secret society of any stripe. But I could be wrong. There are more things in heaven and earth and all that.
- LeifCarrotson 10y ago
  Why would the laws of thermodynamics apply to a secret society?
  - JonnieCache 10y ago
    They're saying the second law of thermodynamics (in a closed system, entropy always increases) means a complex secret can't be kept for a long period of time: the tendency of life/the world towards chaos means that the truth will inevitably leak out. It's more a poetic application of statistical mechanics than a rigorous one.
DanBC 10y ago
Write it, it would make a great chapbook.
- YeGoblynQueenne 10y ago
  If I find myself out of work, I'll give it a go :)

selestify 10y ago

Do we know why such expertise was lost in the first place? The collapse of the Roman empire wasn't for another couple centuries.

tacos 10y ago
It was a Greek device. Theory is that it was pilfered with the other artifacts found in the shipwreck, en route to Julius Caesar. Rough couple years to be a Greek scientist.
tzs 10y ago
Was it lost? Or did those who could build such a thing simply did not think it was worth doing so? The astronomy knowledge and the mechanical theory needed to make the Antikythera mechanism were well known in ancient times, and I don't think those were ever lost. The mystery of the Antikythera mechanism is how it was actually built. But do we know how long it took to build? If it was built in a short time frame, then yeah, the maker probably used techniques that were lost not too long afterward, and not rediscovered until maybe the 14th century. But what if it were built over a much longer time frame? It could have been someone's lifetime project. Then simple techniques might work. For instance, if you need a piece of metal shaped to very tight tolerances, just get it close and then use a hand file to very slowly make it what you need. If this were the case, I can easily imagine that plenty of people between the time it was made and the 14th century knew how to build one, but simply were not interested enough to make building it their life's work.
- i_feel_great 10y ago
  Science is never lost, only suppressed.
  - sanoli 10y ago
    The history of scurvy is pretty interesting: http://mentalfloss.com/article/24149/how-scurvy-was-cured-then-cure-was-lost http://mentalfloss.com/article/24149/how-scurvy-was-cured-th...
  - 10y ago

TruthAndDare 10y ago

> and their science and craft carried on And their gods too?