At 01:48 AM 1/28/96 +0100, Anonymous wrote:
A short 'rant' on techno-dinosaurism...
Or look back to the 13th century when European soldiers were high-tech wearing tons of armor and used cross bows. it was imposing high-tech for the time, but they couldn't move fast or fire arrows quickly... and they were skagmeat for Mongols who were comparatively low-tech.
This is incorrect: The Mongols had superior technology to the people they conquered. In particular Mongol arrows could penetrate armor more effectively than anybody else's arrows, and Mongol siege engines could level city walls far more effectively than anybody else's siege engine. It might well seem strange that nomads had higher technology, but urban civilization of that era was in a twilight era and suffered great technological stagnation and regression. --------------------------------------------------------------------- | We have the right to defend ourselves | http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ and our property, because of the kind | of animals that we are. True law | James A. Donald derives from this right, not from the | arbitrary power of the state. | jamesd@echeque.com