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

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

#141

Post by TeMPOraL »

stareatgoats wrote: post #62
andrepd wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Less work is a good thing.

Less mindless and debilitating work is a good thing, but to replace work that challenges human capabilities in all its aspects with leisure and enjoyment is probably not a good thing. If for example reasoning was automated (we're not there yet, but it is on the horizon) then human capacity for nuance would likely diminish further, to the extent where concepts and ideas might only placed in a 'good' or 'bad' category…

The work is the problem, or should I say, jobs - not the activities. The problem is with people being forced to spend most of their lives fighting for survival. In the past it was toiling in the fields 3/4 of the year to have anything to eat. Today it's toiling in factories and offices to have money to pay for the house, food and medical care. The less time is spent on that, for the same level of quality-of-life, the better.

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

#142

Post by TeMPOraL »

feralimal wrote: post #65

Nice animation, but I bear in mind that stuff that is presented like this is really just hearsay - we don't really know that it was built as presented. It could well have been built as shown - its a plausible hypothesis. But it is also plausible that the bridges were only built in the 18th century. Or maybe they were built 100's of years earlier. With any historical claims, we should have access to the source to be a…

> This exact time was very important to the Holy Roman Emperor because he was a strong believer in numerology and felt that this specific time, which formed a palindrome (1357 9, 7 5:31), was a numerical bridge, and would imbue Charles Bridge with additional strength.

This smells like horse manure, not just because it's unlikely anyone measured time that precisely in 1357, but also the Y/D/M date notation looks distinctively American.

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

#143

Post by simias »

raducu wrote: post #28
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.

Our brains decreased by a golf ball size in the past couple thousand years. It is much easier for stupid people to survive today.

It is well known that Sperm Whales have long ago figured out how to unify quantum physics and general relativity. They could tell us small-brained humans but apparently they enjoy watching us struggle.

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

#144

Post by inglor_cz »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #105
rendall wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. As humans, we have a tendency to be pessimistic, but we are in aggregate enjoying unprecedented peace and prosperity, have done for an unprecedented length of time, and data point to that continuing. The leisure that many of us enjoy is a byproduct of that trend.

Peace from violence between sons sent off to die for no reason. Sure. Peace from violent thoughts leading to depression and anxiety which are at all time highs, no.

Not to be negative, but 1871-1914 was fairly peaceful in Europe and North America as well.

There were Balkan wars and there were Indian wars, but the vast majority of Western population never served in combat.

And people started thinking that this is how it is going to be forever.

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

#145

Post by inglor_cz »

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…

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

Life expectancy in the most typical manufacturing hotspots is actually better than Western standards of 1900. Even poorer countries today have much better healthcare than Queen Victoria used to have. Middle Ages is right out in this comparison.

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

#146

Post by laurent92 »

simias wrote: post #138
TeMPOraL wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As _Microft says, the gif is making rounds on the Internet (I've seen it last night on Mastodon). And to be honest, I'm not surprised that it beats the video - it communicates the exact same information, and the same sense of awe as the original video, but in a much more time-efficient manner. Watching the original now, I can't shake the feeling of how boringly slow it is.

I've noticed that the latest trend on social networks is to have ultra-sped up mini-videos, I think because it's popular on Instagram or TikTok (or both?). It's as if our entire civilization had suddenly caught ADHD. Frankly maybe I'm old school but I found the Youtube version a lot more palatable, I could understand what was going on much butter, take a few seconds to understand the how the contraptions worked. When…

The case study of the ADHD trend in general population is Mission Impossible IV. It is filmed by shoulder cameras and the mounter is just playing piano on the console: there isn’t a shot longer than 4s in the entire movie, and the average of changing camera angle is 0,7s. All you can get is an impression of the main character on any given image, but you can’t rest and you can’t contemplate. This is especially comical in romantic scenes because it makes you wonder how they came up with this idea of fast-paced romantic dialogues. Compare that to pre-2000 movies, even The Gremlins is ultra-slow and makes you wonder whether we were actually slow-minded pre-2000.

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

#147

Post by Kuinox »

dylan604 wrote: post #130
Kuinox wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, they use these to build Guédelon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu%C3%A9delon_Castle Wow. That's a cool project to show how the alien's were not necessarily needed. I've seen attempts at this for the construction of pyramids, but those only really show how moving large stones with human motors were possible.

I visited it a couple of times. The only modern things they use are safety 'tools': Helmet, harness, and ropes are modern, to avoid casualties that were not uncommon when these things were built.

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

#148

Post by dredmorbius »

An etymological note.

I'd known that most in Slavic means "bridge" dating back to the destruction of the famed Stari Most ("Old Bridge") in Mostar (named for the bridge, or its keepers), Bosnia and Herzegovina, in November 1993 during the Croat–Bosniak War.[1] The bridge was rebuilt in 2004.

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

A related English word is mast:

> "long pole on a ship, secured as the lower end to the keel, to support the yards, sails, and rigging in general," Old English mæst, from Proto-Germanic masta (source also of Old Norse mastr, Middle Dutch maste, Dutch, Danish mast, German Mast), from PIE mazdo- "a pole, rod" (source also of Latin malus "mast," Old Irish matan "club," Irish maide "a stick," Old Church Slavonic mostu "bridge").

https://www.etymonline.com/word/mast

This is also probably the source for Mosul, the city in present-day Iraq, from the Arabic al-Mawsul, literally "the joined," refering to the bridge there.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/Mosul

Bridge itself comes from proto-Germanic brugjo, "log, beam".

https://www.etymonline.com/word/bridge

The French pont is from Latin pons, bridge, earlier "connecting gallery, walkway".

https://www.etymonline.com/word/pons

________________________________

Notes:

1. Also called Mostar Bridge, which since the city was named for the bridge-keepers, is a double and self-referential toponym: bridge-keeper-city bridge.

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

#149

Post by felipemnoa »

raducu wrote: post #28
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.

Our brains decreased by a golf ball size in the past couple thousand years. It is much easier for stupid people to survive today.

Neural density seems to be what matters.

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

#150

Post by dredmorbius »

chmod775 wrote: post #94
WalterBright wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you likely would not be able to use the bulk of it Evolution rarely produces something useless, especially something that consumes a lot of precious energy like the brain. More likely these people were exquisitely knowledgeable about their environment. Either that, or their brains were the same size as ours, but far less efficient.

The human brain has actually been shrinking since about 40k years ago. There is some correlation between brain size and intelligence, but admittedly it isn't too strong.

Neandertal brains were larger than h. sapiens. (https://www.cobbresearchlab.com/issue-2-1/2015/12/24/average...)

Whether this means Neandertal had greater cognitive capacity, or sapiens brain is more efficient, isn't clear to me.

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