first contact last time
Nov. 16th, 2008 07:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethThis 'Medieval Mind' thingy just said that once christian Europe got hold of texts written in Arabic from Muslim scholars who had been studying since Aristotle then "knowledge had advanced perhaps a thousand years in just a century."
(1) Christians were a thousand years behind? How did we win any fights?
(2) This makes a *fascinating* precedent for science fiction. It's like first contact, sort of, with the new world views knocking sideways the existing opinions, and the having to scramble to catch up with a sudden revelation in science and maths. A thousand years! Can't hardly imagine it from here.
And they had their arguments about supressing knowledge. Some places banned reading Aristotle. There was a huge fuss about how the new stuff could mess people up. But did people read it and mass convert to Islam or Greek paganism or atheism? Not as such, no. Convert to science, yeah, but with their own beliefs in there still.
... hmmm, and a dude called Bacon is getting locked up and dreaming up technology like flying machines and undersea exploration.
Forget steampunk, where's the medieval equivalent? SF writers of history...
Honestly this is a relief to realise because now I have an angle to keep me interested through the next few weeks in Myth & Med class. It's science fiction, only when it really happened. They had a whole post-apocalyptic thing going on too. Big social changes.
Oh, and now they're inventing Time. Well, 'accurate mechanical clocks'. Islamic technologies again. Can I study Islamic history? It has to have been interesting before this bit.
End 13th century, inventing an escapement... clock in the science musem is 700 years old? Must go see! Awesome much? It has a dial and everything! ooh, and little models that go round and do jousting. Coolness!
"Clocks gave an entire new way of thinking. Things could go like clockwork."
hmmm... not sure he proved a point there...
I love the architecture. The huge tall church roof twiddly bits are impressive.
... and then they showed medieval siege weapons throwing things. Somehow I've avoided thinking about twiddly complicated roofs and the things to knock them down right next to each other.
Aha, another "unimaginably advanced world" ... with really big wall... China?
"The conquest of one third of the known world by Genghis Khan in the 13th century"
heh, yeah.
Gateway to Asia. Travel from one end of Eurasia to another.
1253 some English dude gets to Karakorum.
"He'd hoped to meet the strange creatures described in the medieval mapa mundi"
didn't find any, being much surprised.
"The people of the East thought that dog heads lived in the West"
*lols*
More pretty architecture... and Marco Polo.
"epic odyssey brought him fame lasting even to this day"
"reports of stunning civilisations far in advance of our own"
"wild and dangerous landscapes unlike anything in Europe"
and him saying on his deathbed he hadn't told people the half of it.
... yes, he left out the Doctor. ;-)
See this is why time travel stories cool, they've got this way of looking at history, seeing the same extraordinary as in the space travel stuff.
And now the TV is up to Columbus looking for the East by going West. 1492.
"Columbus' voyage to America marked the end of the medieval age and the start of the modern one."
Hmmm.
One hour to skip through high points in how many centuries?
Interesting program.
Wonder if there were more of them?
Yep
This one was Knowledge. The others are Sex and Belief.
I missed Sex? Figures.
Also the last one was Power.
More from OU
(1) Christians were a thousand years behind? How did we win any fights?
(2) This makes a *fascinating* precedent for science fiction. It's like first contact, sort of, with the new world views knocking sideways the existing opinions, and the having to scramble to catch up with a sudden revelation in science and maths. A thousand years! Can't hardly imagine it from here.
And they had their arguments about supressing knowledge. Some places banned reading Aristotle. There was a huge fuss about how the new stuff could mess people up. But did people read it and mass convert to Islam or Greek paganism or atheism? Not as such, no. Convert to science, yeah, but with their own beliefs in there still.
... hmmm, and a dude called Bacon is getting locked up and dreaming up technology like flying machines and undersea exploration.
Forget steampunk, where's the medieval equivalent? SF writers of history...
Honestly this is a relief to realise because now I have an angle to keep me interested through the next few weeks in Myth & Med class. It's science fiction, only when it really happened. They had a whole post-apocalyptic thing going on too. Big social changes.
Oh, and now they're inventing Time. Well, 'accurate mechanical clocks'. Islamic technologies again. Can I study Islamic history? It has to have been interesting before this bit.
End 13th century, inventing an escapement... clock in the science musem is 700 years old? Must go see! Awesome much? It has a dial and everything! ooh, and little models that go round and do jousting. Coolness!
"Clocks gave an entire new way of thinking. Things could go like clockwork."
hmmm... not sure he proved a point there...
I love the architecture. The huge tall church roof twiddly bits are impressive.
... and then they showed medieval siege weapons throwing things. Somehow I've avoided thinking about twiddly complicated roofs and the things to knock them down right next to each other.
Aha, another "unimaginably advanced world" ... with really big wall... China?
"The conquest of one third of the known world by Genghis Khan in the 13th century"
heh, yeah.
Gateway to Asia. Travel from one end of Eurasia to another.
1253 some English dude gets to Karakorum.
"He'd hoped to meet the strange creatures described in the medieval mapa mundi"
didn't find any, being much surprised.
"The people of the East thought that dog heads lived in the West"
*lols*
More pretty architecture... and Marco Polo.
"epic odyssey brought him fame lasting even to this day"
"reports of stunning civilisations far in advance of our own"
"wild and dangerous landscapes unlike anything in Europe"
and him saying on his deathbed he hadn't told people the half of it.
... yes, he left out the Doctor. ;-)
See this is why time travel stories cool, they've got this way of looking at history, seeing the same extraordinary as in the space travel stuff.
And now the TV is up to Columbus looking for the East by going West. 1492.
"Columbus' voyage to America marked the end of the medieval age and the start of the modern one."
Hmmm.
One hour to skip through high points in how many centuries?
Interesting program.
Wonder if there were more of them?
Yep
This one was Knowledge. The others are Sex and Belief.
I missed Sex? Figures.
Also the last one was Power.
More from OU
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-11-17 07:54 am (UTC)And I've seen the clock in Wells - it is great fun. But also rather sad cos the same knight loses the fight every single time, and I feel sorry for him. 600 years and he has lost every quarter of the hour of every hour of every day. That must suck. I want just once for him to go round and win.
We weren't behind on military technology.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-17 07:48 pm (UTC)Being a thousand years more advanced in military technology than anything else is a great deal more depressing as a thought though. I mean, priorities. *sigh*