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> Just consider that they built structures that still exist today when we have difficulty building structures that last beyond 50 years before they have to be t
by emit_time 8y ago
> Just consider that they built structures that still exist today when we have difficulty building structures that last beyond 50 years before they have to be torn down due to failures in the materials.
That might have quite a bit to do with the economic incentives people base their decisions around when building.
Also, survivorship bias (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias)
- oldandtired 8y agoI'll grant that "survivorship bias" may be in the argument. As I have said elsewhere, the thing I am highlighting in the attitude towards previous societies as being "primitive." This is, itself, a highly detrimental bias to the argument being presented in the original document. We can say that they were different technologically, but based on the frailty of our technological systems now, we really can't say that we are superior to those so-called "primitive" societies.
- JumpCrisscross 8y ago> they were different technologically We can do everything they could. They can do little we can. They came before us and progressed into us. To refute ancient cultures’ primitiveness is to deny the word any meaning.
- TheOtherHobbes 8y agoSome of these primitive people walked across continents and sailed across oceans using only very simple tools. Knowledge is contextual. Our ancestors couldn’t manage a web server, but not many HN readers would survive for long with the tools our ancestors used if dumped into the environments they lived in.
- Retra 8y agoWhat do you actually think "primitive" means?