4 ms·
A common sentiment when viewing something like this is "wow, they were far more sophisticated then we imagined," but it's taken me a while to think instead "we'
by fatbird 4y ago
A common sentiment when viewing something like this is "wow, they were far more sophisticated then we imagined," but it's taken me a while to think instead "we're not much more sophisticated than them.
The Clickspring guy isn't just making this replica, he's doing so using materials and tools available at the time. Several videos show him just making tools: taking simple iron and fashioning a tool like a chisel, then case hardening it and using it to make a file out of the same iron, then case hardening that so he can make drill bits. He comments several times that the quality of the basic tools, simply made, is so good that he'll continue using them sometimes in preference to buying more expensive versions.
The real point of reflection shouldn't be "we thought they were so dumb," it's "we think we're so smart."
- krapp 4y agoI mean, OK but we've also been to space, split the atom, discovered germ theory, harnessed quantum effects to create microchips that can do trillions of calculations per second and decoded the human genome, among other things. Humility is fine but I think it's still valid to accept that we are ahead of the ancient Greeks by more than a little, and recognize that knowledge does advance over time.
- gus_massa 4y agoI agree. I'll add that now everyone can read and do some math. > discovered germ theory A nice perk is that most children survive, you don't need to have 5 or 6 children and hope that 2 survive until adulthood. And there are many other thing we take for granted, but they were very difficult. For example from https://acoup.blog/2021/03/05/collections-clothing-how-did-they-make-it-part-i-high-fiber/ https://acoup.blog/2021/03/05/collections-clothing-how-did-t... just making cloth was a big chunk of the daily activity.