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However, the industrial revolution did not start in Siberia and it is proving only that it can't start in a world with so far removed population centers. Waterw

However, the industrial revolution did not start in Siberia and it is proving only that it can't start in a world with so far removed population centers. Waterways are the cheapest transport option and source of water for the crops, yet nobody lives next to the biggest river around. The only possible reason would be if there is nobody to live there.

picsao 4y ago
War with ents is my most likely explanation, most of middle earth is the frontiers in inter species warfare.
- b112 4y ago
  Ah yes, the ents seem to dislike mankind and their axes. Maybe so!
- KineticLensman 4y ago
  I think Tolkien would have mentioned this somewhere. The Ents are notably isolationist.
kqr 4y ago
No, but as someone else pointed out: industrialism was going strong in Mordor and maybe even other places?
- gostsamo 4y ago
  Mordor was starting an industrial revolution which couldn't have been older than 60 years. Nothing explains the lack of development the previous few millemnia.
  - raducu 4y ago
    > Nothing explains the lack of development the previous few millemnia. But it also took many, many thousands of years for us to get to the industrial revolution. And we did not have magic, we did not outsource stuff to elves and dwarves, we did not have wars with orcs and dragons and other monsters and no extremely powerful transcedental/imortal beings actively involved/shaping the development of history. And we only overcome feudalism because of the plague and the discovery of the New World -- non of which happened in the LOTR universe.
    - TravelPiglet 4y ago
      The church lost a lot of their influence as well.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - samus 4y ago
      Capitalism and the European Enlightenment overcame feudalism. Precursors of both can be found already before the discovery of the Americas.
  - Maursault 4y ago
    > Nothing explains the lack of development the previous few millemnia. What explains the lack of development in ancient Sumer or ancient Rome? Wait a hot minute, because we have no idea and could have no idea if there was a small industrial revolution 10K years before ancient Sumer was a suburb. There would be no way to know if something like actual stainless steel was forged 60K years ago and the technology was lost. This is the problem with the blogger's armchair reasoning.
    - gostsamo 4y ago
      Actually, we know for at least one industrial revolution in sumerian times a.k.a the beginning of the iron age. And we have a way to find for civilizations with larger impact by checking the isotopes locked in ice. This is the method for dating volcano eruptions and for tracking the produce of lead in antiquity.
      - b112 4y ago
        Yet look at today, with climate change. How many areas are seeing reliable ice layer formation? Stuff at the top (most recent) is melting away, too! So... if the same thing happened before, Industrialization, co2, eventual collapse after warming, ice records may be unreliable...
      - ghaff 4y ago
        Yes, but per the graph in the article, any earlier "industrial revolutions" and even the Roman Empire weren't even visible blips relative to the Western European industrial revolution.

picsao 4y ago

War with ents is my most likely explanation, most of middle earth is the frontiers in inter species warfare.

b112 4y ago
Ah yes, the ents seem to dislike mankind and their axes. Maybe so!
KineticLensman 4y ago
I think Tolkien would have mentioned this somewhere. The Ents are notably isolationist.

kqr 4y ago

No, but as someone else pointed out: industrialism was going strong in Mordor and maybe even other places?

gostsamo 4y ago
Mordor was starting an industrial revolution which couldn't have been older than 60 years. Nothing explains the lack of development the previous few millemnia.
- raducu 4y ago
  > Nothing explains the lack of development the previous few millemnia. But it also took many, many thousands of years for us to get to the industrial revolution. And we did not have magic, we did not outsource stuff to elves and dwarves, we did not have wars with orcs and dragons and other monsters and no extremely powerful transcedental/imortal beings actively involved/shaping the development of history. And we only overcome feudalism because of the plague and the discovery of the New World -- non of which happened in the LOTR universe.
  - TravelPiglet 4y ago
    The church lost a lot of their influence as well.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - samus 4y ago
    Capitalism and the European Enlightenment overcame feudalism. Precursors of both can be found already before the discovery of the Americas.
- Maursault 4y ago
  > Nothing explains the lack of development the previous few millemnia. What explains the lack of development in ancient Sumer or ancient Rome? Wait a hot minute, because we have no idea and could have no idea if there was a small industrial revolution 10K years before ancient Sumer was a suburb. There would be no way to know if something like actual stainless steel was forged 60K years ago and the technology was lost. This is the problem with the blogger's armchair reasoning.
  - gostsamo 4y ago
    Actually, we know for at least one industrial revolution in sumerian times a.k.a the beginning of the iron age. And we have a way to find for civilizations with larger impact by checking the isotopes locked in ice. This is the method for dating volcano eruptions and for tracking the produce of lead in antiquity.
    - b112 4y ago
      Yet look at today, with climate change. How many areas are seeing reliable ice layer formation? Stuff at the top (most recent) is melting away, too! So... if the same thing happened before, Industrialization, co2, eventual collapse after warming, ice records may be unreliable...
    - ghaff 4y ago
      Yes, but per the graph in the article, any earlier "industrial revolutions" and even the Roman Empire weren't even visible blips relative to the Western European industrial revolution.