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Chibuzor Ndubisi's avatar

Interesting article, Jason.

In my estimation, several factors must have converged to spark an industrial revolution in the Roman Empire. Besides the importance of geography and geology (both of which would have determined their natural resources, weather patterns, and--to an extent--necessities for survival), innovative minds would have needed (i) free rein to pursue their ideas; (ii) financial support to develop them into machines; and (iii) an economic model that supports their adoption. Thus, in addition to its low-velocity flywheels of progress, the Roman Empire did not possess an environment for optimal flourishing of the intellect.

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Martin Greenwald, M.D.'s avatar

The Rome question is interesting. Another important reason industrialization did not happen in Rome is that, as you allude to with their lack of Arabic numerals, they didn’t think about mathematics and number as we do. Specifically, they hadn’t yet reached the point of thinking about physics and the natural world in mathematical terms. Makes certain kinds of engineering very difficult or impossible.

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