Seriously Greece? Communists? Nazis!? You people are screwed on so many levels it's not even
amusing anymore. France isn't far behind. If you think you can just wish away the economic hole you've
dug for yourselves, I can't wait to see your faces once reality has its way with you. One way or
another, within the Euro system or not, European countries are going to pay a heavy price for
the folly of the last generation.
Personally I can't wait to see it. I'm going to carry around this "I told you so" for the rest
of my life, and I won't be shy about using it.
Forgotten Technology
2012.05.07 - Monday
There are a lot of "documentary" programs out there which go on at length about how the construction
of ancient monuments like Stonehenge or the Egyptian pyramids are mysteries. They're not. It's true
that we may not know the exact details of how they were constructed, or how many people were involved,
or how long it took, but we do understand the methodology if you're willing to dig a little bit to
discover it. It's one of the pathetic sides of Human nature that as soon as we invent a new piece
of technology, it doesn't take long before we can't remember how things used to be before it came
along. People today literally can't imagine how Stonehenge could be built without powerful cranes
or excavators. Not only are those things the tools of our era, but they frame the box we think in.
Wally Wallington is showing us the way it used to be, and it turns out to be a lot simpler than we
imagine.
Ancient monuments are impressive for their time, but don't think for a second that we can't replicate
them today in a fraction of the time and at improved standards of quality. It's simply not important
to us as a civilization to do so. Ancient cultures couldn't be sure what the Moon was; we've walked on it.
The notion that ancient people were somehow more advanced is ludicrous, and springs from another natural
tendency of ours: to imagine that everything was better in the past. It wasn't. The pyramids are just
giant piles of rocks put one on top of another by a slave army, commissioned out of pure ego by men who
believed they were Gods who's souls would be carried by the giant structures into the afterlife along
with any possessions inside. The supposed precision of their construction, that the blocks are so tightly
fitted that even a hair cannot fit between them, is a myth put forward by ignorant conspiracy theorists.
Only a small percentage of the blocks fit so well together, as evidenced by any photograph of them, and
one of the main reasons for it is thousands of years of compaction by the weight of the stones above them.
A modern building with its intricate electrical, air, and water distribution systems and advanced
construction materials is infinitely more complex and impressive to me.
I used to love all of those "aliens built the pyramids" shows when I was a kid, because when you're a
kid you're supposed to believe in ridiculous things. As a 30 year old man who's read up on my basic
engineering and materials principles, I know better, and so should everyone else. Don't believe in
fantasy and magic, no matter how fun it is, when science has already offered a completely sound explanation
for something. It doesn't do our culture any favours.
