Paywalled, and the https://archive.ph/o0LpH https://archive.ph/o0LpH link is 502'ing for me There was a fascinating article about 6 months ago on 'why no roman

Paywalled, and the https://archive.ph/o0LpH https://archive.ph/o0LpH link is 502'ing for me There was a fascinating article about 6 months ago on 'why no roman industrial revolution?' which dove into the convergence of requirements - and almost coincidentally convenient technological advances - that led to this happening when and where it did - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32607187 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32607187 The 'we can't run counter-factuals' comment in the opening paragraph of TFA is the crux of course, though Bret Devereaux's article (via HN link above) provides some highly compelling arguments about the key 'causes'.