Re:Portolan Charts 'Too Accurate' to Be Medieval
by nkoren on Sunday March 06, 2016 @07:52PM
(#11236425)
Ancient Athens, at its peak, had a total population of less than 300,000 people. They represented the urban elite of an empire of a few million people at best. I think it would be difficult to find any comparably-sized contemporary population with a remotely similar genius per capita ratio.
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Re:Portolan Charts 'Too Accurate' to Be Medieval
by cfcef on Sunday March 06, 2016 @09:53PM
(#11236812)
They probably also benefited from low-hanging fruit. No one today has the opportunity to invent 'logic' or 'the Pythagorean theorem' or 'the tragedy'.
Re:Portolan Charts 'Too Accurate' to Be Medieval
by _wo6a on Monday March 07, 2016 @12:46AM
(#11237341)
Good article on Ancient Greek IQ: http://www.unz.com/akarlin/ancient-greeks-not-geniuses/