Posted on 03/30/2005 10:35:09 AM PST by Between the Lines
It would be a drag to have to bear the weight of the world on your shoulders for centuries with your dork hanging out like that.
Just an observation: Ptolemy was extolled as a great scientist because he was known: his work survived. It was honored and taught just because of that.
Ptolemy, as most "scientists" of his day didn't list a compendium of all of his sources, annotate and footnote: those are modern inventions. I don't believe he said "I discovered all this stuff, so y'all listen and give me credit..."[or its Latin equivalent], but not having read every shred of his work, I could be wrong.
My point is that the knowlege was attributed to him and thats why "Ptolemy" had his place: its not like he demanded it.
Why then the creation of a moral argument that its wrong to acknowlege his work? That he "lied"?
Have people become that stupid and myopic?
"And how little they did with it.
But that was due to Politico-religious reasons more than anything else."
Don't underestimate the effect human slavery had on the classical world. When you have cheap labor, the elite can focus on ease, recreation and status seeking. Science and the practical world then are ignored.
"It would be a drag to have to bear the weight of the world on your shoulders for centuries with your dork hanging out like that."
LOL
Maybe its an undiscovered constellation.
The goal? To find out if the sun has a role in global warming.
Nothing like taking a good analytical and inquisitive mind and then making them work on bunko science and leftist ideological orthodoxy.
bttt
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I can't believe the constellations change that much over just a few hundred years. He may be reading a lot into relatively small changes.
bump
Excellent read.
Hmph. They do that today without slavery.
OTOH, maybe their slaves are just as enslaved, but are ignorant of their true condition. Ya think?
"Maybe its an undiscovered constellation."
No, that would be the Little Dipper.
Hey - they didn't have TV to watch or the Democrats to contend with - so they looked at the stars. Clever people.
I hate to rain on this guys parade, but, there is something odd about this whole story. I focus on the fact that there is great precision involved, and the fact that it is copy.
Now, I can accept the fact that a sculptor can also be a scientist skilled in other disciplines including spherical geometry (da Vinci is perhaps the best example). This rare combination might apply to the creator of the original or to the creator of the copy, but what are the odds that it would apply to both?
The determination of the time when "it" was created is also up in the air. Is it the original or the copy which has been dated? Did the creator of the copy appreciate the difference?
Finally, I have been of the opinion all my life that if you take 50-100 objects of random sizes and distribute them on a flat surface, the odds of matching some portion of the sky is almost inevitable, so long as high presision is not expected (as in using modern instruments).
Nevertheless, this whole story is fascinating. A celestial version of the Piri Reis map.
Actually, you'll find just the opposite. The rich now have time to devote to intellectual pursuits. Up until the end of the 19th century, nearly all scientific advancement had been done in slave-owning societies -- and that's quite a bit of scientific advancement.
Maybe he'll debunk the whole global warming thing. I don't think his intellect is being wasted in this pursuit at all.
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