All of yun’s that have been around here awhile know how I like exploring old tech and its production. Old school bows, kayaks, etc.
Anthropomorphic measurements: all of it. A bow or kayak made using the end user as the measuring stick for production. Each piece individually tailored. Even the arrows were ‘fitted’ to the user. (And we still tailor the arrows to the user since not everyone has a perfect draw, even with double pulley 80% letoff cams of modern compound bows.)
And the terminology that has carried forward. Last names of Bowyer, Smith, Fletcher, Boatwright, Luthiar; as just examples. Fistmal is a good one that is losing usage. Its the measurement from the string in a strung bow to the riser. Its measurement is a fist with upraised thumb. Everyones will be different.
History is plumb full of interesting thinks that don’t have jackshit to do with the horrors of politics, but get glossed over because, like everything else of human nature, we revel in the fight or flight response. The mundane things like exchange and tech growth are geeky things that get brushed aside when the blood starts to flow and testosterone is in full swing.
And yes. War does and has always been a driving force in technology growth. Figuring out how to ‘do unto others better than they do unto you’ provides a survival of the tribe and is the extreme end of competition. Even with current tech, growth is being driven by a bloodless war(so far), for that edge of data flow control. Data flow and thought manipulation have been refined to surgical edges and the war is now one for the minds, not territory.
Minds, territory, seem quite different, but they have one commonality: resources. Both are a resource to be used, manipulated, exploited. All for the usual human condition of certain personality types: POWER.
Its like watching a dog chase a car. You can only imagine what the dog would do or think if it actually caught the car. A “well,,, now what?” sort of thing. With humans the goal is never the target, the target is inaccessible so the goal keeps moving, growing, and atrocities mount. Those not inline with the goals will be abused, subjugated, even extermated if that is what the ‘next phase’ goal requires. The target can never be hit because it is an idea only, and not based in reality. Reality being that human nature is only willing to put up with so much Bullshit before striking back. Granted, thats a lot of bullshit before reaction, and the backlash can be measured by time and quantity of crap.
Remember, the tipping point in the colonies was a 6 cent tax stamp on trade goods. (As perspective, that was about 40%of the value of the product. What are YOU paying in taxes right now?)
Anthropomorphic measurement of this round of “fun” tells me its going to make the Revolutionary War look like tea time in Wales.
What kinds of last names will carry forward from this round of the human experiment? Coder? Millennia? Maker?
But I can say with certainty: we won’t learn a damned thing as a species. What is happening will happen again (with variations of course) because there are only two types of people that matter in the big picture of time. Those that just want to be left alone, and those that want Control (to be controlled or to control).
Ain’t nuttin new on this rock spinning around a minimal star on the edge of a galaxial arm. We’re but dust motes in the bigger picture.
