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No? Calling them advanced is one thing (because it was advanced up to their elimination/dispersion), saying it rivals modern materials science is ridiculous, an
by cap11235 1y ago
No? Calling them advanced is one thing (because it was advanced up to their elimination/dispersion), saying it rivals modern materials science is ridiculous, and is a statement that appeals to the people that buy crystals for their "healing energy". The peoples born of the America's do not benefit from Burning Man-type bullshit.
- IAmBroom 1y agoOr to put it more nicely, knowing how to make something is not knowing the fundamental science behind the thing. Romans made self-healing cement without any knowledge of chemistry and materials science. Surgeons performed tumor removals without knowing why they formed. Etc.
- webdoodle 1y ago[flagged]
- colechristensen 1y agoIt is silly to assert that ancient peoples might have known quantum physics but "we just don't know!"
- cwmoore 1y agoEspecially silly since we don't know now either. Oh well, good luck.
- cwmoore 1y agoSibling comment's strawman aside, we don't know what we don't know about what we don't know about. It's easy to forget.
- cwmoore 1y agoNo, really, forgetting is built-in to every conquest, including generational drift and downvotes. Where do you think all the New World libraries and gold instruments went? Don’t forget the levels of human sacrifice in modern days when you cast your superior symbolic knowledge.
- ReptileMan 1y agoThe Mayan cavillation collapsed way before that.
- cwmoore 1y agoYes, long before basically their books were burned by the Spanish.
- noduerme 1y agoThose things do show an intergenerational evolution of complex techniques, though, if only by trial and error. Certainly at some level they must have understood the tumor to be the cause of a malady, for instance. Even now we know of drugs whose biological pathways are poorly understood. Scientific understanding often follows rather than precedes the discovery of a technique. Which is fine! Someone, somewhere, makes a discovery or an incremental improvement to a technique that works in practice. Eventually someone else comes along and tries to reason about how that works. Both add to the body of knowledge. I dsiagree that something can only be characterized as "advanced" if it is fully understood. Advancements also build upon practical knowledge.
- quesera 1y agoGP demonstrates an overextrapolated idea of ancient science, suggesting ignorance but at least honest admiration. You demonstrate an overextrapolated idea of current cultural events, suggesting ignorance and also shallow dismissiveness. You could have made your point without raising your own flag.