"Michael S. Lorrey" <mike@lorrey.com> writes:
> > > Destruction of the library probably helped the development of
> > >scientific technological culture, because the loss of its knowledge,
> > >right or wrong, inspired generations of men to conduct original
> > >research using the scientific method to 'recover' that 'lost'
> > >knowledge.
> >
> > Huh? I don't see much evidence for this. Among the humanities it has
> > indeed caused much research, trying to piece together the *original*
> > Illiad or _The State_, but among the natural sciences there was never
> > the same recover-mentality, not even during the renaissance.
>
> On the contrary, the whole alchemy/chemistry area developed out of
>'recovering' the secrets of the ancient philosphers.
Ok, this area seems to fit with a more backward looking style of science.
> Middle age europe
> lost the secret of roman concrete, and european kings all wanted to
> know how to build structures like the pyramids using the magical
> methods that myth purported they were built with.
The architects and masons did indeed look backwards to antique architecture long before the humanists did. However, I have not seen much evidence that they were trying to re-create the lost knowledge, they were rather trying to create something that worked and drew inspiration from the roman constructions. As for finding the magical building methods, as far as I know there were no attempts to do them.
> Moreover, the scarce information left about the lost 'Atlantis'
> inspired Columbus in his quest for the new world.
What is the evidence for this being a more important factor than finding a trade route to India?
>If there had been more substantial supporting 'evidence' for the >Ptolemaic solar system, Copernicus and Galileo might have been >supressed even more violently than they were.
No, rather the opposite. Their claims would have been less convincing, and hence less of a threat. So they might not have been suppressed, but instead their ideas could have remained forgotten for a long time.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y