Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's an interesting thought experiment. Any technology that much more advanced than our own would require intermediary technologies before we could replicate it. If you took a car back to ancient Rome, they wouldn't be able to replicate it in one step even if they understood it, because you need sufficiently refined fuel, metallurgy, manufacturing precision, etc. The technological baseline needed to rollout any wil…
> If you took a car back to ancient Rome, they wouldn't be able to replicate it in one step even if they understood it, because you need sufficiently refined fuel, metallurgy, manufacturing precision, etc. A bicycle is an even better example. It is 100% understandable to a Roman just via looking and touching, but replicating a bicycle in Rome isn't as easy as it looks. The chain alone is a problem.
The real difference is that it would take an army of ancient craftsmen to make one bike.
The real distinguishing factor with modernity is mass manufacturing and precision at scale.
Even moreso income inequality and competition with slavery.
Any roman who could afford a bicycle would rightly think it was rubbish compared to a horse. All this expense just to propel myself around?!
The same goes for most modern conveniences. Even the best modern dishwasher is less efficient than a human slave doing the same task, if you're indifferent to the suffering of the slave, as the Romans were.