5 ms·
Shouldn't we call it the Silk Age then?
by dudeinjapan 2y ago
Shouldn't we call it the Silk Age then?
- masklinn 2y agoCan't really make weapons out of silk.
- hinkley 2y agoA lot of martial arts can teach you how to defend yourself with rope. You’re not going to kill a mammoth or conquer Normandy with it but that’s still a weapon.
- sam0x17 2y ago> Can't really make weapons out of silk. Someone will always find a way, and then everyone will copy them source: every public internet thing ever
- olddustytrail 2y agoA garrote
- fredsmith219 2y agoGreat for assassins, but not terribly useful in a large battle.
- olddustytrail 2y agoVery true. Also not useful for space battles. Or rhinoceros training. Useful information.
- euroderf 2y agoIdle question: If I am caught carrying one, what is my excuse ? What could it be besides a garrote ?
- jazzyjackson 2y agoBeing poetic about it, silk was effectively wielded as an economic weapon against the British empire to the point they retaliated with opium (flooding a foreign market with cheap drugs is surely an act of subterfuge if not war, so who's to say it has to have a pointy end to be a weapon?)
- Sabinus 2y agoReminds me of how the settled peoples of Europe, the Middle East and Asia eventually worked out the nomads would definitely raid you if you didn't make your settled-people-goods available for trade.
- wqaatwt 2y ago> silk was effectively wielded as an economic weapon Wasn’t most of the silk used in Europe produced in Italy and France, though? Added together they weren’t that far off from China (which also had a huge domestic market). India was also a major exporter so clearly Britain had the option to expand “domestic” production or buy more silk from Italy (importing from China was presumably just cheaper). European silk production collapsed in 1849 due to some still not well understood disease but that was quite some time after the first Opium War.
- dudeinjapan 2y agoAre weapons the defining characteristic of civilizations? Really? What about fashion? Surely we are now in the Polyester Age.
- gavindean90 2y agoBoy are we lol
- SethMurphy 2y agoThe petroleum age would seem an even more encompassing description along the same theory.
- masklinn 2y agoWeapons and tools is what the three-age system was defined by.
- ggm 2y agoIs a shield a weapon? Is armour a weapon? Silk is resistant to cuts. People made suits of armour out of silk. Burning silk (and other organics) makes cyanide. I have no idea if this can be weaponised.
- OJFord 2y agoYou're surely trolling, you think shields and armour might be a weapon but you're not sure about cyanide?
- ggm 2y agoThe amount of cyanide affects its ability to be used as a weapon. Almonds have cyanide. They're a very ineffective weapon, unless you hurl a sack of them at an opponent like a mace maybe. Silk is a defensive weapon. Or, maybe silk cords power bows or Ballista?