Dear Friends,
It seems to me, everything we take for granted is composed of thousands of clever little inventions. Take my pocketknife as an example. The thing is all steel design, with a nub to open it quickly, it’s a lock blade, has a belt clip, an eye for a lanyard, and that’s only what’s immediately apparent to my eye. Considering the machinery it takes to create it, the thing is a miracle. Which means, our ability to combine innovation is perhaps the single most important attribute of our technology. The capability to stack innovation was itself an innovation. To sharpen the point further, look at the magnificent stonework of the ancients. The ability to do such work is lost to us. We can brute force stone, to do what we want, but not like they did. That technology wasn’t added to the stack of human knowledge.
No one man or woman no matter how smart could invent a car from scratch. During the Second Punic War, there was a fellow named Archimedes from Syracuse. His inventions were world renowned. Archimedes was probably smarter than Tesla, Newton or Einstein… but lived when the stack was short. So he was limited in his ability to exploit his intellect. Nevertheless, many of his inventions are in our stack today. Especially his math. As smart as old Archimedes was, he couldn’t, because he didn’t… invent even the steel necessary to build a Model T. Let alone invent a Stutz Bearcat. Because the stack he stood on was too low. His additions to it however helped Ford’s and Stutz’ ideas come to life. We live on the stack of human knowledge. Showing the foolishness of modern arrogance.
While people used writing to record the psychopathic actions of kings, instead, they should have recorded their technology. Wouldn’t it have been awesome if the ancient Egyptians had recorded on their stele, how to cut stone, transport such immense blocks and light the interior of their tombs as they worked them? Those are only the inventions they took for granted that we know about. There are probably thousands of inventions we have no idea even existed. Had all those little innovations been added to the stack of human knowledge, it would be much higher today. The same goes for the fire at the library of Alexandria. That knowledge would have added texture, context and foundation. Not only technology, philosophy would be helped as well, but instead, they recorded wars.
Imagine how advanced Mankind would be, if all the lost technology… wasn’t lost? Had the stacking started at the dawn of mankind’s awakening, we would be as gods now. As if to a caveman we aren’t already. Showing godhood is perspective dependent. Nevertheless, we might be traversing the stars now, had we started stacking 40,000 years ago, instead of 2500 years ago. Then only sparsely, until the printing press was invented, less than 600 years ago. So, we stand on a stack of human knowledge that our ancestors have only really piled for 600 years. The printing press makes knowledge like mosquitoes. So many books are produced, that only a few need survive, for the knowledge to survive. That relies on civilization sustaining itself though. Since books are made of friable paper.
It’s our duty to protect our stack as best we can. Strangely, ancient Mesopotamian writings are still accessible to us, because they were written on clay tablets. The clay survived the millennia where papyrus, wood and bamboo didn’t. Digital media will degrade at the same rate as a book maintained in a library. As long as the library has a roof and the digital media isn’t exposed to sunlight. We stand atop a huge stack of knowledge, that’s been piled for 600 years, and look how high it’s become. Our technology has nothing to do with our intellect, wisdom or creativity… it’s from those that came before us. Should we allow that stack to be toppled, it could take thousands of years to pile it back up. If ever. Maybe we should consider ways of preserving the stack of human knowledge… for the future.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
