From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Sun Apr 14 2002 - 13:38:11 MDT
CurtAdams@aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 4/13/02 10:13:59 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
> lcorbin@tsoft.com writes:
>
> >Now I have re-examined this chart carefully, and it seems
> >inescapable to me that the Western civilization was narrowing
> >the gap between itself and the Eastern civilization, because
> >whether you consider triples or pairs of items, the gap in
> >time between initial development in the East and the West
> >is definitely narrowing.
>
> You sorted the list by time of Eastern discovery. This creates
> a bias indicating closure of gap since discovereries the East
> made relatively late will tend to be ones with a lesser gap.
> Sorting by time of Western discovery show no obvious trend over
> time. The only thing that jumps out is that the east is developing
> social institutions (states, writing, villages) relatively late.
> Not really enough data points, though.
However, if you look at each, east and west, in their own order of
discovery, you will see that the curve of discovery in the east is far
shorter steeper, while the western one is less so. This is demonstrative
of the cascade effects of discovery when you have increasing rates of
cross fertilization.
The east was more geographically conducive to cross fertilization of
ideas, and thus shows a steeper curve.
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