- Joined
- Mar 23, 2016
Michio Kaku, for all the good things he does, seems to be still coming from a rather "pop-sciencey" field.Well, Brad, we've been telling you for a while that your sources aren't very scholarly. Glad you've finally noticed.
The shows with him usually manage to get their points across to laymen watchers, but there's still a problem with oversimplification (especially when it's something as complicated as super massive black holes - things that weren't even confirmed till rather recently) and another important aspect is an attitude of sensationalism. Such shows oftentimes are prone to show things that are "interesting" or "weird" and might overstate certain things or disregard the more mundane aspects.
Still, a good way to get a bit of knowledge as a layman, but it's not scientifically important in the grand scheme of things.
It's actually remarkable that society managed to arrest the "decline" of intellectual activity so well. Without the church and nobility stepping in to fill the void (imperfectly, granted) left by the Roman Empire, Europe could have reverted back to the stone ages, rather than merely returning to a feudal state with a barter system. The people in the Middle Ages did a great deal with very little.
Yeah, the middle ages lacked a lot of the comfortable and convenient things of ancient times such as infrastucture and the prosperity that comes with a huge empire that stretches from coast to coast... yet still they managed to create a few surprising things, different kinds of mills or the method of printing books with moveable letters.
Sure, the Romans had marvelous wonders such as underfloor heating systems or heated pools. It's amazing and astonishing (In fact, I visited a half-reconstructed roman villa this summer), and it's things like these that just show you how wise these people have been, how smart and creative... that's also the reason why I loathe "ancient aliens" with a passion.
The middle ages can't really boost with similar stuff, but they excelled in other (sometimes more down-to-earth) ways. Gothic cathedrals, farming technology, metallurgy - cultural things such as knightly epics...
It's just hard to compare.
Edit: as much as I enjoy the topic, this is kinda getting outta hand, so I'll leave it at that