Were the Romans close to an Industrial Revolution? [Parts 1 & 2]

YouTube ^ | February 25, 2022 | toldinstone

[SunkenCiv]

Maybe it would have, maybe it wouldn’t have. There’s that pesky free will again. The alternative resembles something like “historical inevitability”.

Had the Turd Reich not gone and started a war with nearly everyone they ever met, they’d have orbited a satellite in the 1930s, a man perhaps as early as 1940, might have been on the Moon by the 1950s, and put people on Mars by 1970.

Instead, between 25 and 40 million died, including those mass-murdered in the Holocaust.

Von Braun and most of his team wound up here. An enhanced, unmanned, suborbital V2 took the first photos from space in 1946, and the first crewed lunar mission took place in 1969. The first close-up photos of Mars were taken by Mariner 4 in 1965, with no human missions to date.

https://www.reddit.com/r/spaceporn/comments/c5radh/first_photo_of_earth_taken_from_space_in_1946_vs/

https://www.planetary.org/space-images/mariner-4-image-catalog

https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4055749/posts?page=36#36

[Red Badger]

“The future ain’t what it used to be.” - Yogi Berra..................

[discostu]

It’s not that tough. Just a different way of thinking of the numbers so we’re not used to it. But if you get comfortable enough with them that you’re not “translating” the numbers it works well. I’d rather do math in Roman numerals than octal or hex.

[SunkenCiv]

“If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be.” — YB

[Textide]

Hey, sorry I didn’t respond to your excellent reply the other day. Sometimes I’ll browse FR, but not have much time to formulate a response, then the thought of getting back flies out the window.

I’ve just ordered “The Roman Empire in the Indian Ocean” based on your recommendation. Besides being a couple of thousand years early, eastern trade with India was way off my ‘radar’. My Roman empire paradigm is Europe, a couple of hundred miles around the coastline of the Med, and the wilder areas of varied civilizations to the northeast of Italy. India and Rome were separate history books in my eduction.

Thanks again for these excellent posts and responses. I always appreciate them, even if there isn’t always a reply.

[SunkenCiv]

I’m still reading that book, since the internet, I’ve spent less time reading actual books. I’ve tried a Kindle version off something that was only available otherwise as a collectible, but it just isn’t the same, maybe because the phone screens are small. ;^)

[Textide]

Bit of a necro post, but wanted to report that the book finally arrived. Over 30 days to be delivered from the UK, lol.

I’m enjoying the analysis of the Roman economy that’s presented early in the book. Egypt itself was important to Rome, but Egypt as a launching pad to India and beyond was interesting. Thanks again!

[SamAdams76]

Aside from all that, what have the Romans ever done for us?

[Roman_War_Criminal]

Your language is heavily influenced by Latin.
So is your world view if you are western (believe it or not).
Streets, sewers, plumbing, public lighting, public restrooms, Roman Law, architecture, building codes... the list is exhaustive.

The closest nation to ever image the Romans is America and it’s interesting & telling that even we won’t last half as long as they did.

[SunkenCiv]

Nice, thanks for the update!

[SunkenCiv]

Garrett Ryan, Ph.D as toldinstone: This is the first part of a two-video series exploring why an industrial revolution never took place in the Roman Empire.

0:00 Introduction
2:29 Three Fables about the Roman economy
4:27 Surfshark
5:43 Mass production
7:37 Mining
8:30 Water power
9:06 Steam power

Were the Romans close to an Industrial Revolution? (Part 1) | 10:34
toldinstone | 505K subscribers | 1,114,548 views | February 25, 2022

---

Garrett Ryan, Ph.D as toldinstone: This second half of my two-part series explores the social and economic barriers that precluded a Roman Industrial Revolution.

0:00 Compelling introduction
0:52 Lack of research funding
2:00 Elite disdain
2:48 Caution toward innovation
3:30 Poor communications
3:59 A hidebound education system
4:23 No economic incentive
5:09 No true mass production
6:10 No entrepreneurial class
6:46 No elite financing
7:29 No industrial revolution
8:06 Stirring conclusion

Were the Romans close to an Industrial Revolution? (Part 2) | 9:07
toldinstone | 505K subscribers | 309,867 views | March 4, 2022