[math-fun] Library of Alexandria
I heard a scientist on the radio say today (without proof) that he thought that mankind would have made it to the Moon 200 years earlier if the Library of Alexandria had not burned down. Over the years, I've wondered why science & technology & math did not get further in the ancient world, so I'm curious if others have had similar ideas. Clearly the Roman Empire had a pretty decent standard of living -- it wasn't matched again in the Western world until the Victorian times -- probably due to the "Rats, Lice & History" rationale -- you don't get sick nearly as much when you have a decent sewer system. The population of Rome fell from a height of well over 1 million at the height of the Roman Empire to less than 30,000 in some parts of the Middle Ages -- the water, sewer and street systems had fallen into such disrepair that it could not support a big population. Clearly the Romans had good techology -- their weapons were excellent, their ships were excellent, etc. The Chinese of the same time period already had a very advanced system for sifting the population to find the best & brightest for their bureaucracy. The astronomers of China, Persia & certain parts of the Roman Empire were superb. Most of the geometry required for Kepler's Laws was known to some of the ancient mathematicians. What happened? Or what didn't happen? Was the printing press part of the answer? But the Chinese had printing. Was the human race set back by its failure to backup important files?
Hello, according to historical records the library of alexandira burnt partially in 380 a.d. and on 2 other occasions after. reference : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria There are some controversies about the number of times it did actually burnt. In my opinion this is what caused most of the delays, something like 300,000 (some say 500,000) documents burned, they burned because most of the documents were scrolls. The second cause is religion, from 380 to 1500, well, nothing significant in western culture happened in terms of scientific discoveries or advances, for example in 1252 a papal bull stated that heretics should be tortured and killed. Remember that most of these people (men and women) were inventors, scholars or scientists, I have heard once a statistic saying that as much as 30,000 people died because of religion in those times. Many of them could have been Archimedes or Leonardo Da vinci. Simon Plouffe
On Fri, 26 May 2006, Simon Plouffe wrote:
Hello,
according to historical records the library of alexandira burnt partially in 380 a.d. and on 2 other occasions after. reference : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria
There are some controversies about the number of times it did actually burnt.
In my opinion this is what caused most of the delays, something like 300,000 (some say 500,000) documents burned, they burned because most of the documents were scrolls.
The second cause is religion, from 380 to 1500, well, nothing significant in western culture happened in terms of scientific discoveries or advances, for example in 1252 a papal bull stated that heretics should be tortured and killed. Remember that most of these people (men and women) were inventors, scholars or scientists, I have heard once a statistic saying that as much as 30,000 people died because of religion in those times. Many of them could have been Archimedes or Leonardo Da vinci.
Simon Plouffe
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Hello, On Fri, 26 May 2006, Simon Plouffe wrote: ... ...
In my opinion this is what caused most of the delays, something like 300,000 (some say 500,000) documents burned, they burned because most of the documents were scrolls.
The second cause is religion, from 380 to 1500, well, nothing significant in western culture happened in terms of scientific discoveries or advances, for example in 1252 a papal bull stated that heretics should be tortured and killed. Remember that most of these people (men and women) were inventors, scholars or scientists, I have heard once a statistic saying that as much as 30,000 people died because of religion in those times. Many of them could have been Archimedes or Leonardo Da vinci. ... ...
On the other hand, on May 25, Michael R. Bloomberg, Republican Mayor of New York, to the graduating students of John Hopkins University School of Medicine: Today we are seeing hundreds of years of scientific discovery being challenged by people who simply disregard facts that don't happen to agree with their agenda. Some call it pseudo-science, other call it faith-based science, but when you notice where this negligence tends to take place, you might as well call it 'political science'. Emeric Deutsch
On May 26, 2006, at 7:10 PM, Henry Baker wrote:
What happened? Or what didn't happen? Was the printing press part of the answer? But the Chinese had printing.
Was the human race set back by its failure to backup important files?
Apparently the printing press didn't catch on in China because of the much larger character set. Calligraphy was much more highly developed and prized though. Perhaps the printing press allowed meme evolution to really take off, because memes were able to replicate into other people's brains with much greater fidelity. --Erik N
participants (4)
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Emeric Deutsch -
Erik Neumann -
Henry Baker -
Simon Plouffe