• WarmSoda@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    1 year ago

    Did the Greeks not do experiments? They knew math. They even hypothetically knew about atoms.

    • jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      33
      ·
      1 year ago

      The Greeks held themselves back because most of their intellectual elite considered abstract thought as more noble than hands-on experimenting.

    • alvvayson@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      1 year ago

      Same can be said of all the ancient civilizations.

      But the key insight is that all of nature is predictable and behaves according to natural laws that can be deduced through experiments.

      That leads to the scientific revolution which leads to the industrial revolution.

      • yata@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        In Sid Meier’s Civilization sure, but real history is a lot more complex than that. There were people who came to that conclusion since ancient times without it leading to a scientific and industrial revolution, because there were a lot more factors at play with those than just simply the idea of it.