5 ms·
I genuinely wonder if the Romans actually had peak technology all things considered & balanced.
by 90s_dev 1y ago
I genuinely wonder if the Romans actually had peak technology all things considered & balanced.
- astrospective 1y agoToo much lead.
- 90s_dev 1y agoIt actually wasn't poisonous given the circumstances.
- margalabargala 1y agoCould you elaborate? Just because it was less poisonous than it could have been, does not make it non-poisonous.
- 90s_dev 1y agoI dunno I read it somewhere that some other thing in the pipes formed a protective layer that prevented the lead from actually seeping into the water or something
- fuzzer371 1y agoSame thing happened in Flint Michigan, the lead pipes weren't the issue; They stopped treating the water a certain way and the slight acidity in the water caused (iirc) some sort of calcium carbonate or sodium bicarbonate layer to be washed away until the acidic water started leaching lead into the water.
- e44858 1y agoThey would cook food in lead pots, which made it poisonous: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead(II)_acetate#Sweetener https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead(II)_acetate#Sweetener
- phire 1y agoI have a hard time using "balanced" and Roman in the same sentence. Maybe the technology was "balanced", but the society certainly wasn't. It relied on continual expansion and devolved from a republic into an empire along the way. When the empire couldn't expand anymore, it collapsed and fragmented. I also don't think their technology level was stable. IMO, they were only about 200 years away from developing a useful steam engine and kicking off their own industrial revolution. They knew the principals, they even had toy steam engines. They were already using both water wheels and windmills to do work when available. They were just missing precision manufacturing techniques to make a steam engine that actually did useful work.
- 90s_dev 1y ago> They were just missing precision manufacturing techniques to make a steam engine that actually did useful work. That's the point. They had sustainable and clean technology. It was a sweet spot.
- phire 1y agoThey were mining coal and using it for both heating and metal working. They also deforested large sections of Europe for fuel (especially to make charcoal for smelting iron), building materials and to clear land for crops. They didn't really practice much in the way of sustainable forests, unless they ran into local shortages of fuel wood.
- wredcoll 1y agoAside from the, you know, literal slave labor required to power things, they also burnt down most of the trees within reach of the cities.
- breischl 1y agoThey also mined by tearing apart mountains, and threw noticeable amounts of lead into the air doing it. > Roman-era mining activities increased atmospheric lead concentrations by at least a factor of 10, polluting air over Europe more heavily and for longer than previously thought, according to a new analysis of ice cores taken from glaciers on France's Mont Blanc. A lot less than modern technology manages, but a lot more than nothing. And that with a much smaller population. https://phys.org/news/2019-05-roman-polluted-european-air-heavily.html https://phys.org/news/2019-05-roman-polluted-european-air-he... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruina_montium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruina_montium
- vkou 1y agoGiven that their society only functioned through massive amounts of theft from their neigbhours and slave labor, that would be very unfortunate if true.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- hollerith 1y agoDid the ancient Romans have transparent paper, celluloid or cellophane? Just curious whether I'm missing some connection.
- saagarjha 1y agoI'd take modern healthcare tbh
- 90s_dev 1y agoMeh, a longer life isn't necessarily a happier one.