RE: Ancient Greece as almost there. (Antikythera mechanism)
June 5, 2012 at 6:43 pm
(This post was last modified: June 5, 2012 at 6:57 pm by Anomalocaris.)
Indeed, the particular device may have been a parlor trick gadget of the sort that indeed didn't really die out in the middle ages, at least in the byzentine empire.
Several 100 years passed after Antikythera device went in for the drink before Christianity took over Europe. Yet despite being without christianity, the Greeks exhibited no evidence of having realized and utilized the potential of gearing of the type in Antikythera. A society has to be able to recognize and be prepared to utilize a technology to advance. The Greeks were not. So like the Arabs of 9th centuries who made similar mechanisms, the Greeks were not on the verge of modernity like the Europeans of 15th century were.
Also, recent studies suggest even in its limited scope in 1st century BC, Antikythera device was not a recent Greek advancement. It may have represent barbylonian technology and astronomical expertise that dated back many more centuries further.
So in all those centuries it didn't lead to modernity. Why would christinaity that came 4 centuries later be singled out as the barrier between Antikythera technology and modernity?
Several 100 years passed after Antikythera device went in for the drink before Christianity took over Europe. Yet despite being without christianity, the Greeks exhibited no evidence of having realized and utilized the potential of gearing of the type in Antikythera. A society has to be able to recognize and be prepared to utilize a technology to advance. The Greeks were not. So like the Arabs of 9th centuries who made similar mechanisms, the Greeks were not on the verge of modernity like the Europeans of 15th century were.
Also, recent studies suggest even in its limited scope in 1st century BC, Antikythera device was not a recent Greek advancement. It may have represent barbylonian technology and astronomical expertise that dated back many more centuries further.
So in all those centuries it didn't lead to modernity. Why would christinaity that came 4 centuries later be singled out as the barrier between Antikythera technology and modernity?
