Along with the crack down on science and technology by the church = plunging society into the Dark Ages.
I often marvel at how far along we'd be by now if the knowledge had been allowed to build unabated?
Maybe we'd be building houses a bit better that the current stick houses wrapped in mold-making plastic 'envelopes'?
Maybe we'd have learned how to be a bit more of a peaceful race by now?
Nah
Now, that is funny.
There is a good deal of debate about exactly when the Library burned, with claims of anywhere from the Roman wars of Julius Caesar to the Muslim conquest, a range of about 700 years.
More importantly, it appears very little of what we would call "science" was done in Alexandria, especially after its first century or so. After about the 1st century AD, it appears that very little original work was done in "natural philosophy," in Alexandria or anywhere else in the Roman Empire. Work appears to have been limited to commentaries on earlier scholars. Not much to "build on" there.
Plato wanted philosophers to be accepted as equals by the gentry, so he denounced the idea of mucking about with "stuff," (what we call experimentation) as improper.
Philosophers were to think great thoughts. Getting your hands dirty was for slaves and mechanics, both at the bottom of the social scale.
Science as we knew it grew out of medieval colleges, which were completely Christian in origin. Medieval monks weren't afraid to get their hands dirty, as the Church taught the holiness of labor.
The scientific method has been invented exactly once in history. It was invented in a highly Christian context. This is NOT an accident.
This happens to be my field.
We know exactly how to build better buildings.
They would cost more, which means you would have a smaller house for the same money.
Guess what? The customer doesn't want a "better" house, he wants a bigger house.
Free market and all that.
The customer is an idiot, IMHO, but as they say, he is always right.