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So much hand-wringing in these comments. Let me try to help: the advent society-wide timekeeping mechanims with more (sundials) and more (mechanical clocks) an
by ezekiel68 5y ago
So much hand-wringing in these comments. Let me try to help: the advent society-wide timekeeping mechanims with more (sundials) and more (mechanical clocks) and more (atomic clocks) accuracy fomented the emergence of habits and patterns of interactions unimaginable by humans and their societies before these facilities became widely available. Some of these emergent properties conveyed advantages that aided conquest and empire building, not unlike Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel".
It's kind of like watching an action movie from the 1980s with a modern teenager and trying to explain why the hero/victim didn't simply use their mobile phone to text or call for help. Those with the facility can literally not fathom life without it, except as some kind of vague thought experiment.
- b3morales 5y agoSeeing Like a State by James C. Scott also covers similar themes, on measurement and other societal standardization, although I don't recall that it touched on timekeeping directly.
- dorchadas 5y agoRevolution in Time by David Landes supposedly (I haven't read it, though it's been on my list for a while) touches on this, and how timekeeping fundamentally changed life and civilization.
- blueflow 5y agoI just realized the noema magazine is part of the Berggruen think tank... Its neither remotely scientific nor written with honest intent. What are the goals this think tank is supposed to advance?