So I'm reading this book about the cloning of human insulin, and it amazes me how these guys were able to achieve so much with such primitive technology. It's as if they were using stone tablets for their lab notebooks or something!

What technology used by people in the past really impressed you? I'm always amazed by how people were able to draw maps and navigate the seas before the days of aerial photography and GPS.

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2001

Answers

I'm taking a course on Greek architecture, and I'm becoming increasingly impressed by the way that builders 2000 years ago constructed monumental buildings from massive blocks of stone--cutting the blocks to precise tolerances and adhering to detailed specifications for measurements and proportions--all with primitive tools and without written plans or drawings.

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2001

I remember watching The Waltons and movies set in the 40's, thinking, "This is the tech level of the people who developed the atomic bomb? Yikes." Then there's the russian space program, which went a long way with no onboard computers.

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2001

If anything earlier than this century can bve considered primitive, I'd go for waterharvesting skills in desert civilizations that have existed for 4000+ years and still do today.. although now the power being shifted from the village to the capital city far away, the communuity based participatory conservation action is all but gone, drawughts are occuring, and people migrating to cities.. and the desert is slowly wrapping itself, one abandoned house after another. I'm speaking of Rajasthan,India.

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2001