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A comment on Why It Took So Long to Invent the Wheel (2012). Parent comment

Re:Why It Took So Long to Invent the Wheel (2012) by dTal on Saturday October 29, 2016 @01:15PM (#12824990)
Regarding Archimedes' chronophone, I am not sure that the premise is well-formed. I find I cannot predict what the chronophone will do because the notion of "closest analogue" is inherently ambiguous. In the worst case we cannot send any information back at all by definition.

All that being said, assuming the chronophone will let me, I'd bring their attention to the idea of the printing press. It's easily made, the benefit is obvious, and the effect is dramatic. Kind of amazing it wasn't invented earlier.

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Re:Why It Took So Long to Invent the Wheel (2012) by lmm on Saturday October 29, 2016 @06:25PM (#12826801)
I think it's a self-defeating idea, but a useful thought experiment. It makes you think about the abstract principles behind things that are good ideas, and then the more-abstract principles behind those.
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Re:Why It Took So Long to Invent the Wheel (2012) by Houshalter on Saturday October 29, 2016 @01:24PM (#12825055)
The link explains it further. The point of the chronophone is that you can't just send ideas you already have back. If you want to send the scientific method back in time, you have to actually do science. If you want to send the printing press, you actually have to think about better ways your present civilization could transmit information.
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