Lost knowledge: the concept of vanished technologies and other human histories

475 Pages·2019·6.401 MB·English

by  Olshin, Benjamin B

Lost Knowledge
Technology and Change
in History
Series Editors
Adam Lucas
Steven A. Walton
VOLUME 16
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/tch

“The Road to Singularity” by Abayomi Louard-Moore
© Abayomi Louard-Moore
Lost Knowledge
The Concept of Vanished Technologies and
Other Human Histories
By
Benjamin B. Olshin
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Cover illustration: “A Pause to Consider the Arrogance of Machines”, copper plate etching, by James Skvarch,
2005. © James Skvarch
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Olshin, Benjamin B., author.
Title: Lost knowledge : the concept of vanished technologies and other human
 histories / by Benjamin B. Olshin.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2019] | Series: Technology and change
 in history, ISSN 1385-920X ; volume 16 | Includes bibliographical
 references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018060003 (print) | LCCN 2019000440 (ebook) | ISBN
 9789004352728 (Ebook) | ISBN 9789004352711 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Technology and civilization—History—To 1500. | Technology
 and civilization—History—To 1500—Sources. | Technology—History—To
 1500. | Communication of technical information—History—To 1500. |
 Knowledge, Theory of—History—To 1500. | Civilization, Ancient.
Classification: LCC CB478 (ebook) | LCC CB478 .O47 2019 (print) |
 DDC 303.48/3—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018060003
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 1385-920x
isbn 978-90-04-35271-1 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-35272-8 (e-book)
Copyright 2019 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi,
Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
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This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xiii
List of Figures xiv
1 Speculations and Fantasies 1
1 Lost Knowledge, Technology, and the Patterns of History 1
2 The Nature of Ancient Knowledge 5
3 A New Approach 11
4 The Sources 14
5 Technology in the Remote Past: the Case of Frederick Soddy 19
6 Speculations and Methods 35
2 Ancient Tales of Flying Machines 40
1 Two Types of Tales 40
2 Chinese Stories of Flying Machines 45
3 Korean Accounts of Flying Machines 56
4 South Asian Tales of Flying Vehicles 75
5 Ainu Stories of Flying Machines 89
6 Hopi Lore about Flying Vehicles 96
7 Tales from Oceania about Flying Vehicles 99
8 A Synthesis of Traditions in the “Flying Horse” Tales 101
9 Terms and Types 110
3 Magic Mirrors and Early Televisions 114
1 Mirrors in History 114
2 Two Chinese Diagnostic Mirrors 123
3 A Mirror to Locate Illness and a Mirror to “Illuminate the
Bones” 126
4 Looking into Chinese Mirrors 131
5 Mirrors, Meaning, and Context 134
6 Another Diagnostic Device 136
7 Mirrors and Medicine 138
8 Jīvaka’s Diagnostic Device 140
9 A Magic Mirror Trick? 142
10 Traditions of Transmitted Images in Central American and Persian
Cultures 149
11 Prester John and Western Traditions of Long-Distance Mirrors 158
vi Contents
12 Remote Communication in the Works of Paracelsus and Francis
Bacon 163
13 Traditions Concerning Special Mirrors and Telescopes 166
14 Chinese Tales of Image Transmission 171
15 Technology in Context 175
4 The Missing Land of Atlantis 177
1 A Question of Identity 177
2 Atlantis in Plato’s Timaeus 182
3 Plato and the Idea of History 190
4 The Geography of Atlantis 202
5 Fiction, Myth, and History 209
6 Transmission, Memory, and Text 214
7 Atlantis in Plato’s Critias 218
8 Atlas, Atlantis, and a Question of Interpretation 236
9 Ancient Views of the Remote Past 238
10 Numbers and Technical Detail in the Story of Atlantis 245
11 Atlantis: in Search of an Interpretation 255
5 Rings and Dangerous Powers 271
1 The Nature of a Folktale 271
2 The Tale of Gyges in Plato’s Republic 273
3 The Background and Setting of the Tale of Gyges 277
4 The Elements of the Tale: the Cave 280
5 The Elements of the Tale: the Horse 282
6 The Elements of the Tale: the Body 284
7 The Elements of the Tale: the Ring 292
8 Conclusions: Technology and the Fate of a Civilization 297
6 The Nature, Encoding, and Transmission of Knowledge 308
1 Storing Knowledge 308
2 Transmission through Time 310
3 The Concept of “Encoding” 318
4 Knowledge and Loss 325
5 Knowledge and Myth, Knowledge in Myth 338
6 Changing Knowledge, Changing History 346
7 Conclusions — What Did They Mean? 353
1 Technology and the Concept of the “Golden Age” 353
2 More on the “City of Brass” 360
Contents vii
3 Knowledge Transmission and Cyclical History 363
4 How Far Back? 368
5 The Methods for the Transmission of Knowledge 375
6 The Idea of “Lost Knowledge” and the Nature of Myth 378
7 Looking at the Texts 383
8 Reading Texts 388
9 Towards the Future 391
Bibliography 395
Index 452