From: "James A. Donald" <jamesd@echeque.com>
Date: Sun, 28 Jan 1996 14:51:22 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: RANT: When hi-tech is a hinderance (freedom w/in limits)
Message-ID: <199601280626.WAA04730@mailx.best.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 01:48 AM 1/28/96 +0100, Anonymous wrote:
>
> A short 'rant' on techno-dinosaurism...
> 
> Or look back to the 13th century when European soldiers were
> high-tech wearing tons of armor and used cross bows.  it was
> imposing high-tech for the time, but they couldn't move fast or
> fire arrows quickly... and they were skagmeat for Mongols
> who were comparatively low-tech.

This is incorrect:  The Mongols had superior technology to the 
people they conquered.  In particular Mongol arrows could penetrate
armor more effectively than anybody else's arrows, and Mongol siege
engines could level city walls far more effectively than anybody
else's siege engine.

It might well seem strange that nomads had higher technology, but
urban civilization of that era was in a twilight era and suffered
great technological stagnation and regression.

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