>>> | That IS interesting. I wasn't aware that the wheel existed in any
>>> | form in the Americas. Makes sense, though. After all, a bead is
>>> | almost a wheel, for a toy.
>>> A wheel is a section of a log, and log is a section of a tree trunk.
>>> The easiest way to move a heavy object is to roll it on a log.
>>> The reason the wheel does NOT get used is the terrain. They
>>> are not much use without roads; rain forests are prairies do not
>>> make good surfaces.
>>> As a consequence the idea gets thought of repeatedly (at least once
>>> per generation) and then discarded repeatedly as impractical.
>>> When Britain's Industrial Revolution took place it was more practical
>>> to move iron ore and coal by canal barge (and then later by rail) than
>>> by muddy roads. Rails need special wheels.- Hide quoted text -
>
> In other words, there is a kind of dynamic reciprocal interaction
> between environmental circumstances and the development of technology:
> environmental context facilitates the development of certain specific
> technologies, which, in turn, modifies environmental context, which
> facilitates the development of other, related and distinct new
> technologies.
>
> Â Has this process ever been analyzed in detail? Â It sounds extremely
> interesting, and, also, of some practical significance.
> ===================================
>
> I don't know the answer to that question, certainly I've never made
> such a study, but you seem to have hit the nail on the head.
> From experience I've seen invention at work and it would be a
> serious mistake to assume that our ancestors of 80 or 200
> generations ago (2000 to 5000 or so years) were not as intelligent
> as we are, or as inventive. There is currently a thread running in
> sci.physics on the Antikythera device, and I've studied an
> Egyptian coffin in the British Museum. Guess what? It has mitred
> corners. You need a saw and saw guide to do that, and those
> mummies are wrapped in cloth. You need a loom to make cloth.
> How long has it been since mankind became hairless and needed
> clothing?
> The cathedrals of Europe, the mosques of the Middle East,
> they are a testimony to art, mathematics and creativity.
> Even Stonehenge, which some modern cretins denigrate as a
> place of human sacrifice and pagan worship, is actually a marvel
> as a calendar and a clock. There is a tendency for the more
> recent primitive minds to paint a picture in their own stupid
> image and because an IQ of 100 is "normal" ( and stupid)
> the majority tend to think earlier man was in some way inferior,
> a caveman with a club.
> The British Museum itself is a Greco-Roman temple and
> architecturally no advance whatsoever, and until recent times
> it was impossible to build American style skyscrapers in London
> because they'd sink in the clay. Today that problem has been solved,
> we have the Gherkin.
> Â
http://www.30stmaryaxe.com/index2.asp
> Who could not say this is as beautiful as any pyramid or temple?
> And in typical British understatement, we give it a name from a
> vegetable.
> Television was invented by John Logie Baird in Britain or by
> Â Philo Taylor Farnsworth in the USA depending on your patriot/
> parochial bias. It is fairly certain that the two were independent
> and there was no collusion between them, and its invention occurred
> simply because it became possible after radio. In any case it was
> perfected by the Japanese who seem to be less inventive but
> better engineers.
> Same with computers and jumbo jets and Concorde and flying
> to the Moon.
> When something is both possible and practical, it will be invented.
>
> While discussing something as primitive as the wheel it would
> be foolish indeed to imagine that someone capable of designing
> and building a birch bark canoe or a bow and arrow would be so
> stupid as to not have thought of it, he just didn't find it practical
> and so he discarded it.
>
> Further thoughts on your idea:
> Northern man lives in the cold. He has to find heat and insulation
> to survive. Three hours out in the snow without it, hypothermia
> and death results.
> Equatorial man can sleep naked under the stars, he needs no heat.
> The Spaniard or the Mexican can sleep after noon, have his siesta,
> knowing that he will not freeze that night. Northern man must stock
> his larder for winter, or die. He must plan for the future. That is
> how intelligence evolves, and intelligence is the adaptation of what
> you already know to different circumstances. Â Man cannot invent
> television without first inventing radio. Man cannot fly to the Moon
> without first flying at Kitty Hawk in a string kite. It is not really
> surprising to me that the most inventive blood stock is German,
> Russian, British and American. Â Intelligence and inventiveness
> is subject to evolution. If you need it and don't have it, you die.
> If you don't need it, you procreate.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
