Ancient Technology

[Silent A]

[ QUOTE ]
It would wipe out all life, or at least 99% of it. If a disaster like this happened today and only a few people were left on earth could you recreate this technology? Or would you be concerned with survival and be living a more primitive life. Wouldnt this technology be lost for thousands of years until someone rediscovers it. It would be passed down through stories and the stories would changed over many generations. If this disaster happens today and thousands of years from now someone reinvents this technology wouldnt a story of us having it sound unlikely?

Again i dont know much about this, i just read a little and thought it was very interesting.I just wanted to bring it up and see what others thought. It could very well be highly unlikely.

[/ QUOTE ]

You'd have to postulate that their technology was so advanced that we wouldn't be able to recognize it as technology in the first place.

The problem (for your scenario) is that we have lots of archological evidence of simple technology from these civilizations but nothing remotely suggesting that they had technology even close to ours (let alone more advanced). The idea that they had simple technology and super complex technology, but nothing in between is implausible beyond reason.

In the case of the Pyramids, we have examples of early failures followed my moderate to total sucesses spanning over several hundred years. Remember, these projects were the single most important thing for the entire civilization. A huge fraction of their surplus labour and thought went into these for hundreds of years. The fact it's hard for an individual to figure out the best way to put a 10 tonne block on top of a pyramid with minimal technology means squat. The Egyptians would have had their best minds working on the problem around the clock for generations.

Think for a moment about what our best minds have done in the same time frame and see if you still think what they did suggests they might have had superior technology.

[BluffTHIS!]

Wikipedia entry on the above book.

[Sun Wukong]

[ QUOTE ]
Although it's very unlikely the ancients had anywhere near the kind of technology we now possess their are many secrets that have been lost in time thanks to events like the burning of the Library of Alexandria.
I read an interesting article about something found in Egypt that could possibly be a battery.
However I'm not exactly sure what they would use a battery for. The truth of the matter remains to be decided but i thought it was intersting nevertheless, I'll try and find the link...

[/ QUOTE ]

OK slight mistake the article i mentioned was regarding discoveries made in Baghdad (therefore Persian). Still interesting IMO...

BBC Article

[2faded]

All interesting comments and i might have gone a little far using "plausible". Still interesting nonetheless and i think i might pick up a book on this subject for an interesting read if nothing else. Or maybe not and ill just get the "invisible landscape" from Mckennna as his books are always good.

[bunny]

I'd suggest "How to Think About Weird Things" a book on pseudoscience in general but which (from memory) includes a chapter on Chariot of the Gods and others like it.

It's almost the opposite of what you asked for, but it's a good book to explain why claims like "spacemen made the pyramids" are a long way from plausible.

[2faded]

Thnx i will look into that.

[2faded]

Can anyone recommend any type of book that deals with theories about the universe or anything like that?

EDIT: i just found stephen hawking's "A Brief History of Time"...anyone read it?

[Brom]

I'd highly recommend Hawking's A Brief History of Time, as well as another of his books The Universe in a Nutshell .

[illini43]

With all of the evolution necessary for life to develop and grow on Earth, I don't see how a millions of years old civilization could have existed on this planet before our 'modern' ancients.

[HoldingFolding]

Michio Kaku & Brian Greene are very good. If you are looking for a layman's primer then I found Bryson's 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' very readable.