Why hasn't Middle Earth had an Industrial Revolution?

Re:Why hasn't Middle Earth had an Industrial Revolution? by Maursault on Tuesday June 28, 2022 @04:10AM (#31905362)

> Nothing explains the lack of development the previous few millemnia.

What explains the lack of development in ancient Sumer or ancient Rome? Wait a hot minute, because we have no idea and could have no idea if there was a small industrial revolution 10K years before ancient Sumer was a suburb. There would be no way to know if something like actual stainless steel was forged 60K years ago and the technology was lost. This is the problem with the blogger's armchair reasoning.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Why hasn't Middle Earth had an Industrial Revolution? by gostsamo on Tuesday June 28, 2022 @05:40AM (#31905844)

Actually, we know for at least one industrial revolution in sumerian times a.k.a the beginning of the iron age. And we have a way to find for civilizations with larger impact by checking the isotopes locked in ice. This is the method for dating volcano eruptions and for tracking the produce of lead in antiquity.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Why hasn't Middle Earth had an Industrial Revolution? by bbarnett on Tuesday June 28, 2022 @08:56AM (#31907058)

Yet look at today, with climate change.

How many areas are seeing reliable ice layer formation? Stuff at the top (most recent) is melting away, too!

So... if the same thing happened before, Industrialization, co2, eventual collapse after warming, ice records may be unreliable...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Why hasn't Middle Earth had an Industrial Revolution? by ghaff on Tuesday June 28, 2022 @10:28AM (#31908117)

Yes, but per the graph in the article, any earlier "industrial revolutions" and even the Roman Empire weren't even visible blips relative to the Western European industrial revolution.

[ Parent | on HN ]