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Are there more surviving ancient writings in Greek or Latin?

talesoftimesforgotten.com

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Re: Are there more surviving ancient writings in Greek or Latin?

#11

Post by jl6 »

ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #3

When you think about the scope of human history, and how little we know, it's sad to think of all the lost work. We only know things going back a few thousand years, but men who have our same cognition have been around for far longer. Plato spoke of a golden age, now long lost, where the flaura and fuana were so plentiful that men didn't need to work. Atlantis is mentioned, stories of a distant time, with men who may…

Sure, but that’s the Greek mythological version of the Garden of Eden story.

I find the reality even more interesting. What were humans thinking about 40,000 years ago, with their modern bodies and brains?

Re: Are there more surviving ancient writings in Greek or Latin?

#12

Post by pacman2 »

jl6 wrote: post #11
ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #3

When you think about the scope of human history, and how little we know, it's sad to think of all the lost work. We only know things going back a few thousand years, but men who have our same cognition have been around for far longer. Plato spoke of a golden age, now long lost, where the flaura and fuana were so plentiful that men didn't need to work. Atlantis is mentioned, stories of a distant time, with men who may…

Sure, but that’s the Greek mythological version of the Garden of Eden story. I find the reality even more interesting. What were humans thinking about 40,000 years ago, with their modern bodies and brains?

Were they thinking?

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

Re: Are there more surviving ancient writings in Greek or Latin?

#13

Post by pacman2 »

lai-yin wrote: post #2

The part about the extinction of the Punic language made me wonder - what would it take to utterly erase an entire branch of knowledge today?

Not long. Lets assume we lose the ability to manufacture modern IT equipment. How long do we have? Estimated live expectancy of HDD, SDD and tapes?

Most digital data would be lost within 10-20 years. Maybe sooner. We could at least try to pint out wikipedia.

Re: Are there more surviving ancient writings in Greek or Latin?

#15

Post by [deleted] »

jl6 wrote: post #11
ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #3

When you think about the scope of human history, and how little we know, it's sad to think of all the lost work. We only know things going back a few thousand years, but men who have our same cognition have been around for far longer. Plato spoke of a golden age, now long lost, where the flaura and fuana were so plentiful that men didn't need to work. Atlantis is mentioned, stories of a distant time, with men who may…

Sure, but that’s the Greek mythological version of the Garden of Eden story. I find the reality even more interesting. What were humans thinking about 40,000 years ago, with their modern bodies and brains?

[deleted]

Re: Are there more surviving ancient writings in Greek or Latin?

#16

Post by bombcar »

ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #3

When you think about the scope of human history, and how little we know, it's sad to think of all the lost work. We only know things going back a few thousand years, but men who have our same cognition have been around for far longer. Plato spoke of a golden age, now long lost, where the flaura and fuana were so plentiful that men didn't need to work. Atlantis is mentioned, stories of a distant time, with men who may…

It’s also possible that much of what was lost was frankly not worth preserving, perhaps time has acted as a great filter.

Re: Are there more surviving ancient writings in Greek or Latin?

#18

Post by pacman2 »

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu

and

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

"Bishop De Landa, a Franciscan monk and conquistador during the Spanish conquest of Yucatán, wrote: "We found a large number of books in these characters and, as they contained nothing in which were not to be seen as superstition and lies of the devil, we burned them all, which they (the Maya) regretted to an amazing degree, and which caused them much affliction." Only three extant codices are widely considered unquestionably authentic."

Re: Are there more surviving ancient writings in Greek or Latin?

#19

Post by vulcan01 »

dbtc wrote: post #10
nickbauman wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's possible with the rise of more and more "successful" dictatorships the Internet will become the domain of the state and we'll probably lose a lot very very quickly. So... that happening.

I'm long on paper.

Paper, meet fire.

Seriously, though, there have been a lot of instances throughout history where scrolls and books have been burned at the order of the state. Perhaps the most famous example of this is the burning of the Library of Alexandria:

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

So I don't think paper is necessarily a "better" alternative.

Re: Are there more surviving ancient writings in Greek or Latin?

#20

Post by lai-yin »

inglor_cz wrote: post #8
nickbauman wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We still can't read Linear A, the language of Minoan Greece.

Forgotten protocols are a thing until today. AFAIK we have problems deciphering the recorded transmissions of Lunokhod, the Soviet probe that landed on the Moon. Everyone who knew the code is dead.

Would be interesting to have a catalogue of endangered protocols/knowledge bases - similar to the endangered species list.

Bit of a tangent: just occurred to me that part of the story arc for the show 'Mr. Robot' is hackers trying to erase an entire knowledge base - the debt history of billions of people. The protagonists try to achieve this goal by peaceful means, but...okay I'm going to stop spoiling it's an awesome show check it out.

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