[ExI] what if

[Tomasz Rola]

On Sat, 15 Dec 2012, Tomasz Rola wrote:

> Also, I wonder what would become of Digital Rights Management in such 
> world? Would people be more Open Source oriented? Possibly so. In such 
> situation, tech can progress quite well, IMHO. So overally, we would be 
> much further then we are now. Unless THE emperor decided that tech was 
> really not so much important. But in such case, using manna machines from 
> haevens would become inevitable, everybody fed and happy, end of the 
> story.

Forgot to mention, but we are not 2000 years after Romans (and other 
ancients) in terms of technological advances. Not even 1500. I understand 
than we surpassed them just some 300 years ago, with introduction of 
calculus and steam engine... and rediscovery of concrete, of which for 
example Colosseum and Roman Pantheon had been built. Romans called it opus 
caementicium, after their fall it hadn't been called very much AFAIK (at 
least not in mainland Europe), until some 250 years ago...

[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_caementicium ]

[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_Mechanism ]

Also, you might want to read:

"The declaration of Christianity as accepted religion in the Roman Empire 
drove an expansion of the provision of care. Following First Council of 
Nicaea in 325 A.D. construction of a hospital in every cathedral town was 
begun. Among the earliest were those built by the physician Saint Sampson 
in Constantinople and by Basil, bishop of Caesarea in modern-day Turkey. 
Called the "Basilias", the latter resembled a city and included housing 
for doctors and nurses and separate buildings for various classes of 
patients.[17] There was a separate section for lepers.[18] Some hospitals 
maintained libraries and training programs, and doctors compiled their 
medical and pharmacological studies in manuscripts. Thus in-patient 
medical care in the sense of what we today consider a hospital, was an 
invention driven by Christian mercy and Byzantine innovation.[19] 
Byzantine hospital staff included the Chief Physician (archiatroi), 
professional nurses (hypourgoi) and the orderlies (hyperetai). By the 
twelfth century, Constantinople had two well-organized hospitals, staffed 
by doctors who were both male and female. Facilities included systematic 
treatment procedures and specialized wards for various diseases."

[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospital ]

Regards,
Tomasz Rola

--
** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature.      **
** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home    **
** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened...      **
**                                                                 **
** Tomasz Rola          mailto:tomasz_rola at bigfoot.com             **