Forgetting the Asbestos: Or, how we lose knowledge and technologies.

Re:Forgetting the Asbestos: Or, how we lose knowledge and te... by ordu on Tuesday October 25, 2022 @12:47AM (#33326356)

> What if the knowledge behind that device hadn't been lost and we were 1k years further along into our understanding of mathematics and computing?

I believe that knowledge is overrated on the long run. It is methods for knowledge creation what really matters. And incentives to apply the best known methods.

Had you read Bret Devereaux talking on an absence of Roman Industrial Revolution?[1] No practical steam engine before it's time has come. Knowledge is created when it is needed. I believe the same stands for computing. It must be some new demand for calculation that created computing. Probably the development of economics.

[1] https://acoup.blog/2022/08/26/collections-why-no-roman-indus...

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Re:Forgetting the Asbestos: Or, how we lose knowledge and te... by nicky0 on Tuesday October 25, 2022 @01:20AM (#33326541)

Computing was created because of the demand for calculating artillery trajectories and code breaking in the 1940s

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Re:Forgetting the Asbestos: Or, how we lose knowledge and te... by eesmith on Tuesday October 25, 2022 @03:30AM (#33327303)

The Z3 was made for aerodynamics calculations, and more generally civil engineering.

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Re:Forgetting the Asbestos: Or, how we lose knowledge and te... by ordu on Tuesday October 25, 2022 @08:04AM (#33329378)

I'm not sure that this is the whole story. Analytical Engine of Babbage was designed at 1830. It was not built at the time of course... But the idea was tried again and again unless it made it's way into practical applications. It seems to me that there was a demand. Probably not economics but engineering?

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