Monumental Record: the lives of the workers building the Great Pyramid of Giza
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Re: Monumental Record: the lives of the workers building the Great Pyramid of Giza
#2Website seems to be down at the moment, here's a snapshot: https://web.archive.org/web/20220111060057/https://www.histo...
Re: Monumental Record: the lives of the workers building the Great Pyramid of Giza
#3> The documents are laid out like a modern spreadsheet
> a wonder of the ancient world
Very slightly OT, but it's a shame history has been divided between "Ancient Times" and "our era", because it's obvious we are contemporaneous to these people who wrote down their daily activities in a journal and kept track of what was owned to whom on a paper table that looked like a spreadsheet.
Not just contemporaneous: we are the same.
Re: Monumental Record: the lives of the workers building the Great Pyramid of Giza
#4This reminds me of a poem by Berthold Brecht:
Questions From A Worker Who Reads
Who built Thebes of the seven gates?
In the books you will find the names of kings.
Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock?
And Babylon, many times demolished
Who raised it up so many times? In what houses
of gold-glittering Lima did the builders live?
Where, the evening that the Wall of China was finished
Did the masons go? Great Rome
Is full of triumphal arches. Who erected them? Over whom
Did the Caesars triumph? Had Byzantium, much praised in song
Only palaces for its inhabitans? Even in fabled Atlantis
The night the ocean engulfed it
The drowning still bawled for their slaves.
The young Alexander conquered India.
Was he alone?
Caesar beat the Gauls.
Did he not have even a cook with him?
Philip of Spain wept when his armada
Went down. Was he the only one to weep?
Frederick the Second won the Seven Year's War. Who
Else won it?
Every page a victory.
Who cooked the feast for the victors?
Every ten years a great man?
Who paid the bill?
So many reports.
So many questions.Re: Monumental Record: the lives of the workers building the Great Pyramid of Giza
#5> The documents are laid out like a modern spreadsheet > a wonder of the ancient world Very slightly OT, but it's a shame history has been divided between "Ancient Times" and "our era", because it's obvious we are contemporaneous to these people who wrote down their daily activities in a journal and kept track of what was owned to whom on a paper table that looked like a spreadsheet. Not just contemporaneous: we are…
We use coinage and alphabets, transmute rocks into metal, have near-universal literacy, fly through the air like birds, bring the fire of the Sun to Earth to slay our enemies, walk on the Moon, transplant hearts and kidneys from one person to another, and bring forth plentiful harvests within glass temples in frozen wastelands.
We craft elephants of iron that swallow us when we wish to travel from one city to another. Upon arrival, they disgorge us unharmed. They run five times as fast as the fastest horse.
Eleven years ago, we finished building a tower that is five times as tall as the Great Pyramid; building it took only six years and 22 million person-hours (so perhaps 1000 people, the size of Merer's aper, though unlike Merer's workers they were enslaved). It's not defensive (towers are almost useless for defense now); it's mostly luxury housing. In two centuries it will be gone.
We turn night into day whenever we wish, making travel at night just as easy as travel in the day.
Only one in 100 children die before age 5 now, a number that was around 20 throughout all human history until a century ago. Most people who are born live threescore years or more. But many fewer people are born compared to our population (which is 250 times bigger than in Merer's time), because now people do not become pregnant unless they want to, usually. Most people do not raise their own children any more; they put them into state institutions except for evenings, weekends, and summertime.
When someone is badly injured or sick, we put their body into a state of temporary death, cut it open, fix the problem, sew them up like a torn sweater, and bring them back to life; it's so commonplace that people sometimes choose to undergo this procedure for cosmetic reasons such as having bigger breasts.
To speak to one another, we often use the power of lightning, invisibly leaping through the air, to convey our thoughts to one another, even though we may be on opposite sides of the earth. We have put thousands of new, tiny moons in the sky because they help this system work better. Usually when we write, instead of using ink, we write in letters of lightning. It's easier that way, because the letters disappear and reappear whenever we wish.
95% of the world's work is now done by servants made of metal such as the elephants I mentioned. For example, almost nobody washes clothes anymore, and we can all listen to music more perfect than any human can play, whenever and wherever we wish, played for us by these metal servants. These servants do not eat food; instead they are fed on lightning made from the black blood of the Earth. Doing too much of this sort of thing is changing the weather and melting the glaciers, so now we are teaching these servants to feed on sunlight instead.
Most countries, especially the militarily strongest, no longer have kings.
We have the same kind of paintings Merer had, but also a different kind of paintings that glow, move, and speak. Sometimes people sit for hours watching these incredibly lifelike paintings, laughing and crying. Sometimes they show us things that are happening right now, far away, and sometimes they show us things that happened in the past, or that never happened.
Most houses no longer have fireplaces. Most people no longer know how to make fire; they have tiny tools that make fire for them.
But sure, basically nothing has changed, because we still use spreadsheets.
Re: Monumental Record: the lives of the workers building the Great Pyramid of Giza
#6> The documents are laid out like a modern spreadsheet > a wonder of the ancient world Very slightly OT, but it's a shame history has been divided between "Ancient Times" and "our era", because it's obvious we are contemporaneous to these people who wrote down their daily activities in a journal and kept track of what was owned to whom on a paper table that looked like a spreadsheet. Not just contemporaneous: we are…
In the sense of: People in ancient times were also people with needs, urges, dreams, hopes etc. You are right. Looking at ancient people and describing them like a different species makes no sense at all.
However believe systems make a huge difference as well. As a child I had problems placing myself into the shoes of my grandfather who was a Nazi, went to the eastern front and had values that differed immensely from what my parents told me was good and right. But we shared at least some common cultural knowledge and social practise. Ancient people can feel foreign because their lived cultural practise, believes etc differ from ours hugely. Not being able to put yourself into the shoes of someone who e.g. lived in a feudal system is normal — you need to be very well informed to be able to imagine how life felt to someone like that, nevertheless is still worth to try of course.
Re: Monumental Record: the lives of the workers building the Great Pyramid of Giza
#7> The documents are laid out like a modern spreadsheet > a wonder of the ancient world Very slightly OT, but it's a shame history has been divided between "Ancient Times" and "our era", because it's obvious we are contemporaneous to these people who wrote down their daily activities in a journal and kept track of what was owned to whom on a paper table that looked like a spreadsheet. Not just contemporaneous: we are…
Do you think ancient implies a different species or what? Some tech is very old.
Re: Monumental Record: the lives of the workers building the Great Pyramid of Giza
#8The nobleman Ankhhaf, mentioned in these texts and described the article as the ostensible project manager of the pyramid at Giza, was the subject of a truly remarkable bust:
Re: Monumental Record: the lives of the workers building the Great Pyramid of Giza
#9> The documents are laid out like a modern spreadsheet > a wonder of the ancient world Very slightly OT, but it's a shame history has been divided between "Ancient Times" and "our era", because it's obvious we are contemporaneous to these people who wrote down their daily activities in a journal and kept track of what was owned to whom on a paper table that looked like a spreadsheet. Not just contemporaneous: we are…
No post body was provided.
Re: Monumental Record: the lives of the workers building the Great Pyramid of Giza
#10> The documents are laid out like a modern spreadsheet > a wonder of the ancient world Very slightly OT, but it's a shame history has been divided between "Ancient Times" and "our era", because it's obvious we are contemporaneous to these people who wrote down their daily activities in a journal and kept track of what was owned to whom on a paper table that looked like a spreadsheet. Not just contemporaneous: we are…
We use coinage and alphabets, transmute rocks into metal, have near-universal literacy, fly through the air like birds, bring the fire of the Sun to Earth to slay our enemies, walk on the Moon, transplant hearts and kidneys from one person to another, and bring forth plentiful harvests within glass temples in frozen wastelands. We craft elephants of iron that swallow us when we wish to travel from one city to another…
This is the single best comment I have ever read on HN.
Of course you won't see it glorified by HN folk, cause they're entirely elsewhere vibrationally. Too busy complaining. "Well, someone has to complain! Someone has to keep others accountable!" they cry. May be true, maybe not, but when all we do is complain, nothing gets done. Not for lack of effort and busyness, but for lack of faith and goodwill.