retrograde technologies?

Spike Jones (spike66@ibm.net)
Fri, 28 May 1999 22:58:15 -0700

> Lee Daniel Crocker wrote: ... It is idle fantasy to
> imagine that (1) technology can move backwards, ...

The latest Star Wars episode made me wonder: can technology go backwards? They seemed to imply technology was going violently aft. Can anyone think of an example, now or in any time past, where a society had it and later didn't? Descended from enlightenment to superstition? Would dark ages Europe qualify? spike