From: James Ganong (JGanong@webtv.net)
Date: Sat May 29 1999 - 17:27:11 MDT
Certain specific techniques/technologies
can be lost; examples:
certain Etruscan & Egyptian metallurgic techniques (this from a
metalsmith friend)
China & certain mechanical technologies used in clocks, automatons, etc
the ability to read a given written language
(Etruscan, Minoan, Egyptian til the Rosetta Stone)
I'm sure there are others,but a lot of such
lost technologies are more due to a loss of social organization (try
building the pyramids without a central govt). About the only thing
that can kill a technology is
a total loss of knowledge (rare--the European dark ages were the
flowering of
Muslim culture) or loss of access to some vital resource.
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