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A comment on A flurry of new studies identifies causes of the Industrial Revolution. Parent comment

Re:A flurry of new studies identifies causes of the Industri... by com2kid on Tuesday January 17, 2023 @07:02PM (#34421339)
Likewise, the silicon valley boom happened via massive ecological damage to the surrounding environments.

The linked article seems to argue against itself in places, a surplus of labor is argued to be both good and bad.

I've seen arguments that the Roman empire never underwent an industrial revolution because they had slavery, and thus never needed to automate. The Romans did the resource extraction part right, but never iterated on it to the next step.

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Re:A flurry of new studies identifies causes of the Industri... by tyre on Tuesday January 17, 2023 @07:15PM (#34421459)
The Romans never had access to coal, which was the energy-dense fuel that made the Industrial Revolution possible.

Bret Devereaux has a (long) post on this, which I recommend:

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

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Re:A flurry of new studies identifies causes of the Industri... by Manuel_D on Tuesday January 17, 2023 @08:18PM (#34422136)
It wasn't just access to coal, it was access to coal coupled with the heat engine: heat engines used coal, but led to the production of more coal and in turn created more demand for coal. This positive feedback loop created exponential growth.

The Chinese widely used coal in metallurgy, but did not have an effective heat engine.

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Re:A flurry of new studies identifies causes of the Industri... by emmelaich on Tuesday January 17, 2023 @08:19PM (#34422149)
Romans had access to coal, even mines. That acoup article says it's the demand for coal that made the difference.
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Re:A flurry of new studies identifies causes of the Industri... by com2kid on Wednesday January 18, 2023 @01:46AM (#34424063)
Incredible post, thanks! I'll no repeated the incorrect assertion that the Romans could have had any hope of their own industrial revolution!
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Re:A flurry of new studies identifies causes of the Industri... by tekla on Tuesday January 17, 2023 @07:36PM (#34421698)
The Roman slave argument is one of those extremely shitty arguments with no evidence to back up that only gets airtime because it attempts to backport modern culture wars.

Romans didn't have access to vast quantities of coal. Its hard to do industry when you are energy limited

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