That’s a great saying about the angels and donkeys. I’ve read that most ancient civilizations had the same kind of view of history. They did not have our notion of progress; rather, they saw mankind as having fallen from a primordial “golden age”, and heading pretty much straight downhill ever since. No doubt this was aided by the near-universal agreement among old people that the young generation just doesn’t measure up to how people were in the old days.
So if we go back to the “chronophone” thought experiment, Archimedes might have been spectacularly uninterested in information from the future (especially through such a garbled connection). Unlike today where we would assume that future civilizations would be sources of tremendous knowledge and wisdom, he would have imagined a future of near-bestial creatures who had long lost whatever vestiges of grace mankind had still retained in his age.
Archimedes had direct evidence of adding to the progress of useful knowledge over generations. Even in that age, scientists were an exception to the rule.
I can corroborate that. Indian Hindus believe that there are eons (longer) and numerous eras (shorter) consisting of 4 “yuga”s, during each of which humans generally become worse off… all great traits are part of the first yuga, and goes downhill to the last one (in which we exist, obviously). After each era, a “pralaya” takes place destroying everything. Then start afresh.
That’s a great saying about the angels and donkeys. I’ve read that most ancient civilizations had the same kind of view of history. They did not have our notion of progress; rather, they saw mankind as having fallen from a primordial “golden age”, and heading pretty much straight downhill ever since. No doubt this was aided by the near-universal agreement among old people that the young generation just doesn’t measure up to how people were in the old days.
So if we go back to the “chronophone” thought experiment, Archimedes might have been spectacularly uninterested in information from the future (especially through such a garbled connection). Unlike today where we would assume that future civilizations would be sources of tremendous knowledge and wisdom, he would have imagined a future of near-bestial creatures who had long lost whatever vestiges of grace mankind had still retained in his age.
Archimedes had direct evidence of adding to the progress of useful knowledge over generations. Even in that age, scientists were an exception to the rule.
I can corroborate that. Indian Hindus believe that there are eons (longer) and numerous eras (shorter) consisting of 4 “yuga”s, during each of which humans generally become worse off… all great traits are part of the first yuga, and goes downhill to the last one (in which we exist, obviously). After each era, a “pralaya” takes place destroying everything. Then start afresh.
Sigh.
Though he might change his mind as we explained how to cure a whole bunch of diseases he thought were intractable.
Through a chronophone? Wouldn’t that just repeat the nonsense ancient doctors believed, and cures to diseases he already knows how to deal with?