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Half Full, Half Empty: The Peculiar Medieval Page
- from4chan 11y agoWhy does this medievalbooks.nl keeps getting this much points for promoting one site that seemingly doesn't have anything to do with tech or news or anything related? These are like weekly posts and all linger in the front page for some time.
- Fargren 11y agoQuite simply, because they are very interesting to a significant subset of the community here. Of course, that's the reason why anything gets points around here. The reason many of us find this interesting, I think, is that people who love learning are wont to be fascinated by the history of learning.
- keithpeter 11y agoI'd add to this: a book is an example of a sophisticated technology that has become invisible as we are familiar with it. Looking at aspects of the history of the book may help us see how to develop the technology I'm using to write this and that you are using to read this so that it disappears in the same way as the book. Some would argue that direct manipulation interfaces on mobile phones are already part of the way there.
- dang 11y agoFargren said it nicely, but I can't resist adding that HN is explicitly not just tech- and news-related. Intellectual variety is the principle of this site. If pg can post about cat prints in medieval manuscripts, anything goes.
- agumonkey 11y agoHistory, IMO, is pretty important. Understanding how people did things in the past, given their own constraints. Helps put our own ideas and actions in perspective.