[_ Old Earth _] Things of Wonder

[Not_Now.Soon]

I just got done watching a special on the ancient city of Petra on NOVA, and it got my mind thinking about all the wonders of the world. The wonder of miracles and faith are not the only things that leave people with a sence of wonderment and awe. Ancient civilization and their engineering as well as their architecture leave a simular sence of awe and wonderment as looking up at the stars on a clear night sky. Simular to the awe of faith and love when I hear about someone's testimony of God acting in their lives in one way or another. Or simular in the natural world from ecosystems balancing themselves out, to specifics on species how they work and live, or on the beautiful rock formations that sometimes have an explanation and sometimes don't.

So what are some things you've come across in the world that just make you look at it in wonderment? If you have any understanding of those things what have you found out? And if it's something that has affected your faith or your beliefs about how the world works, what has it changed.

For me evidance of ancient civizalitions has challenged and shook my belief that we live in an advanced era. We have steal, medicine, and the Internet. But as far as being more advanced more inteligent, or discovered engineering tricks that were unknown in ages past. That belief has been shaken and broken by mysteries of ancient things that were man made. As far as my faith, this perspective strengthens my resolve in my beliefs. They aren't Stone Age ideas that are dusty and obsolete, because the Stone Age people were probabley smarter then we give them credit for. When I hear the idea that religion is primitive, I think that the people in the primitively world might just be as advanced as we are.

What about you? Anything catch your sense of awe?

 

[Barbarian]

The one that impresses me the most? The Antikythera Mechanism shows that complex astronomical calculations were so routine for the ancient Greeks that they built calculators to do them.
http://www.livescience.com/1166-scientists-unravel-mystery-ancient-greek-machine.html

Peruvians, long before Columbus, figured out how to do electrochemical reactions to put a thin plating of gold on silver objects. And the presumed "battery" found in the middle east is possibly something of similar use.

Remember, the ancients were as smart as we are, and they were capable of amazing things once they got the leisure to work on them. Of course, they have nothing like our accomplishments in electronics, biology, or materials science. But the two great dark ages of western civilization tends to blind us to just how much our ancestors could do.

 

[brother Paul]

I liked the one where we found that Aztecs and Mayans understood how to make polymers, and actually used these rubber/plastics to cover items and even make balls fr there children to play with. see http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...nce-ancient-maya-aztec-rubber-balls-beheaded/

And a curiosity was that in Mexico the indigenous peoples discovered the wheel where Native Americans to the north never did....they dragged every thing....???? No interaction perhaps? I find that strange....

 

[jasonc]

The accuracy,not the maps that were drawn, of surveys of my state.I have seen overlayed 1850ish surveys over satellite images and its accurate.I have a story of where a fort ftom pre civil war might be and will be part of its verification if it goes right.I have been told what topo to look on and verified what was a possible Man made lines in a marsh. This is a 1943 topo.uses lat and long from a Web site I was able to get the top to match. Seconds and minutes on the survey still are that useful.markers on rt 60 are still found from that time.they never remove them just verify.

 

[jasonc]

View attachment 9257

 

[Barbarian]

I liked the one where we found that Aztecs and Mayans understood how to make polymers, and actually used these rubber/plastics to cover items and even make balls fr there children to play with. see http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...nce-ancient-maya-aztec-rubber-balls-beheaded/

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...nce-ancient-maya-aztec-rubber-balls-beheaded/

Basically, heating tree sap latex into.rubber. It polymerizes by itself in air, but it's then sticky and gummy. The properties of the polymer can be adjusted by adding morning glory extract to the mix before heating. The result, depending on the amount of extract used, can be very elastic, or very durable.

And a curiosity was that in Mexico the indigenous peoples discovered the wheel

Actually, the wheel was fairly well-known in the pre-Columbian Americas. Incas and other groups used it for toys. The problem was that there wasn't a readily tameable beast that would adapt to pulling carts. The Mayans did have the k'abal, which was sort of a potter's wheel. Jarred Diamond has a nice discussion of the issue in Germs, Guns, and Steel.

where Native Americans to the north never did....they dragged every thing....???? No interaction perhaps? I find that strange....

Makes perfect sense in terms of their geography and available organisms.

 

[brother Paul]

I did like Guns, Germs, and Steel....