41–50 of 247 posts
Seriously, why is the submission to a lower-quality, sped-up Twitter gif?
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.
Note that the construction took 45 years.
Those little intermediate piers were probably the slowest part of the on site work. And the most vulnerable part of the bridge, because that's what gets eroded. It's still the biggest cause of bridge failure.
Also, I'd love to know how the bridge was designed. How did they figure out the shapes of the supporting structure, or location of the piers? Etc. We have this knowledge systematized today, but we use mathematics in a form that was developed much later than those bridges.
I used to be tempted to think that our modern generations are extra smart because of the cool gadgets we have. Seeing stuff like this, and reading ancient political / philosophical writings, gives me a much-needed reality check.
There is absolutely no difference between a human from 6000 years ago and one today. You could be an Einstein level genius back then, and likely unable to use any of those skills other than for the optimization of your environment. Also, you likely would not be able to use the bulk of it because your education would be non-existent, so your IQ compared to someone today would be much lower even though your raw intelli…
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.
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.
We work harder than our predecessors (8+ hours workday, 5 days a week, both men and women), so I'd say we aren't really as smart as them.
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.
We work harder than our predecessors (8+ hours workday, 5 days a week, both men and women), so I'd say we aren't really as smart as them.
This really blew my mind when I saw it for the first time. It still blows my mind. Amazing.
Yeah me too. Also how Julius Caesar crossed the Rhine river is amazing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNPnBVHSeZc https://the-augustus.com/2018/11/29/how-did-caesar-cross-the...
Playing right into the stereotype; they didn't even start with a standard unit.
I used to be tempted to think that our modern generations are extra smart because of the cool gadgets we have. Seeing stuff like this, and reading ancient political / philosophical writings, gives me a much-needed reality check.
There is absolutely no difference between a human from 6000 years ago and one today. You could be an Einstein level genius back then, and likely unable to use any of those skills other than for the optimization of your environment. Also, you likely would not be able to use the bulk of it because your education would be non-existent, so your IQ compared to someone today would be much lower even though your raw intelli…
Similary, high IQ people today are given "blunt knifes" considering they are surrounded by 8 billion retards, see handling of covid, climate change, flat earthers etc. If anything, back then a high iq person would have motivation and belief in bringing discoveries to the table. Today, why would anyone invent say fusion power or usable super conductors when you know it will just be use for more poverty and destruction?
The average size of brains has been lowered by 15% from then to now.
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.
> It's a pretty typical mistake. It's an even more typical mistake to believe that our time is the pinnacle in all respects (because of all the cool gadgets that we have). But we are not the pinnacle in all respects; perhaps the largest danger is that we are delegating all multifaceted work (which ultimately is what produces skill) to automation and/or extreme specialists, so that we can push the enjoyment button (or…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those little intermediate piers were probably the slowest part of the on site work. And the most vulnerable part of the bridge, because that's what gets eroded. It's still the biggest cause of bridge failure.
Makes me wonder if they've been done in parallel or serially. Also, I'd love to know how the bridge was designed. How did they figure out the shapes of the supporting structure, or location of the piers? Etc. We have this knowledge systematized today, but we use mathematics in a form that was developed much later than those bridges.
Note that the construction took 45 years.
Isn't this longer than the average life expectancy of that time? I wonder what kind of incentives they had for such long-term projects.