Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video] • Hacker News Board

Re: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]

#241

Post by rmah » Sat, Oct 17, 2020, 7:03 PM UTC

InitialLastName wrote: post #197

rendall wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very, very, very true. The light of civilization is a flickering candle in the darkness I often think about the city-states along the Silk Road: healthy, peaceful, cultured, unprecedented prosperity for their time. All defeated when the hordes of Genghis Kahn rode by, many utterly destroyed The Empire of Mali. The Kingdom of Lithuania. Macedon. Tyre. Babylon. Carthage. Samarkand. Assyria. All once mighty, all gone, p…

> The Empire of Mali. The Kingdom of Lithuania. Macedon. Tyre. Babylon. Carthage. Samarkand. Assyria. All once mighty, all gone, perhaps a place-name remains, if that Aside from perhaps Macedon and Carthage (indirectly via Rome) most of those don't even warrant a mention in the high school history curriculum (in the US, at least).

I've seen the high school world history books of my nieces and nephews and all of those (except maybe lithuania), were at least mentioned in US schools. Other civilizations ranging from the maya to the khmer were also included. By necessity, none of them are examined in depth but they all got at least a few pages.

The simple fact is that pre-industrial history has had literally thousands of different thriving civilizations around the world. It's simply not possible to even briefly cover anything but a fraction of the more "important" in a non-university setting.

Re: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]

#242

Post by Axsuul » Sat, Oct 17, 2020, 10:14 PM UTC

Fricken wrote: post #96

nom wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We work harder? Seriously? Most of the time in human history people were struggling to even stay alive. You had to work until you got enough food to feed your family, or you'd die. Live was not great, it was very stressful and inefficient (but people were used to it). This is still the case in most of the world, although overall not as bad as it once was, it is improving constantly. We're the lucky ones who can susta…

We haven't improved efficiency at all, it takes far more resources to keep a person going today than it did in the 14th century. It takes a couple decades of education before a person can even begin to enter the workforce. Raising kids was once an investment, now people can barely afford to raise 1 or 2. Our inefficient stuff is made by people in foreign countries working in factories whose lives really aren't any be…

These are gross generalizations.

> It takes a couple decades of education before a person can even begin to enter the workforce.

This obviously depends on profession. On the contrary, you no longer need to go to college or trade school since everything is online. Seriously, it's amazing how proficient some of these children can get just from YouTube videos.

> Raising kids was once an investment, now people can barely afford to raise 1 or 2.

Hey at least you have a choice now. Before, raising lots of children was almost a necessity in order to help around the farm. Now things are so efficient that you really don't need to raise children at all.

> Our inefficient stuff is made by people in foreign countries working in factories whose lives really aren't any better than middle ages Europe.

Can you provide evidence on this?

> People like farming and hard physical labour

Most people would probably disagree with you on this. There is a big difference between occasional hard labor and doing hard labor every single day. It takes an enormous toll on the body.

> When people don't have to do any hard labour as part of their job, they go to a gym and pay money for the privelege of moving heavy things around even though it serves no practical purpose.

Isn't the purpose to be healthy or look better?

Re: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]

#243

Post by erikpukinskis » Sat, Oct 17, 2020, 10:35 PM UTC

emiliobumachar wrote: post #84

DavidHm wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a pretty typical mistake. We are just as smart as our predecessors. We just have a much higher population, a higher % of them are well educated, and we have an enormous body of historical knowledge (as well as easy ways for anyone to access it). "On the shoulder of giants" etc.

You're generally right, but missing an important detail: nutrition. We are not smarter than the subset of our predecessors who had the privilege of developing without ever starving.

There is evidence that overeating can lead to cognitive impairments so I’m not sure at a population level we’re ant better off.

Re: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]

#244

Post by mbank » Sun, Oct 18, 2020, 12:03 AM UTC

I think the story goes that there were less than 10 people in medieval Europe that could do a division on paper at the time the great gothic cathedrals were build. Gets you thinking...(no source provided)

Re: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]

#245

Post by elric » Mon, Oct 19, 2020, 6:12 PM UTC

gowld wrote: post #102

elric wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That statement feels wrong but I have no data to back up my gut feeling. Only a handful of generations ago even something as menial as doing your own laundry was hard work. Maybe we spend more time in offices, but if anything, I suspect we work a lot less hard in general.

For most of human history most people didn't "do" laundry.

Maybe if you count prehistory when people wore animal skins or walked around in their own fur. But as long as there's been fabric, there's been laundry. The documented history of laundry goes back to at least ancient Rome, where fullones (usually male slaves) did laundry. In the early middle ages women started to take care their household's washing needs.

Re: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]

#246

Post by rendall » Wed, Oct 21, 2020, 12:17 PM UTC

rendall wrote: post #110

bnegreve wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As humans, we have a tendency to be pessimistic Maybe, but it is not because we tend to be overly pessimistic in general, that serious problems cannot happen to us. Entire civilizations have diapered in the past, so we should remain vigilant. After all, another bias that humans have, is a strong tendency to believe that what is true now, will remain true forever.

Very, very, very true. The light of civilization is a flickering candle in the darkness I often think about the city-states along the Silk Road: healthy, peaceful, cultured, unprecedented prosperity for their time. All defeated when the hordes of Genghis Kahn rode by, many utterly destroyed The Empire of Mali. The Kingdom of Lithuania. Macedon. Tyre. Babylon. Carthage. Samarkand. Assyria. All once mighty, all gone, p…

>> The Kingdom of Lithuania

For anyone still paying attention, I should have written "The Grand Duchy of Lithuania", which was a powerful state for hundreds of years in the Middle Ages

The Kingdom of Lithuania, while also powerful, lasted about 2 years

Re: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]

#247

Post by rsanek » Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 4:07 PM UTC

erikpukinskis wrote: post #243

emiliobumachar wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're generally right, but missing an important detail: nutrition. We are not smarter than the subset of our predecessors who had the privilege of developing without ever starving.

There is evidence that overeating can lead to cognitive impairments so I’m not sure at a population level we’re ant better off.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect