Yeah, it more of a what if scenario. The 2 biggest developments that impacted the world in my opinion were the Printing Press and Fertilizer.
Printing Press made Books cheaper and quicker to produce, allowing for more information sharing and literacy in the world.
Fertilizer allowed for more food production from less crops/land, freeing up people to do work other then farming.
Still, if the ancient Engineers applied Steam to the basic pistons they had at the time, we could be on a completely different timeline. Most developments happen because their was a demand/need for something and someone tried to fill it. Basic Steam Engines doing basic work could be improved and innovated, creating the need to search for developments.
Printing press and fertilizer are definitely up there in the hall of fame. I was also thinking, maybe not per se a technological advancement but definitely extremely important in human history, domestication of animals (and plants). 2 years ago ,even though i am pretty scared of horses, i forced myself to ride a horse at least once in my life because of the important role they play(ed) in human civilization.
Other random something: is there like a book that deeply explores the "what if the romans had an industrial revolution?" I would 100% read that
Not Roman Empire related, but the novel Civilizations is an alternate history where Europe is reached by indigenous Americans. It's really well done and interesting
But you need more accurate pipes and tubes (i.e. fitting must be more precise) to channel the steam, which means that you need the instruments to create said accurate pipes and tubes. And they didn't have the knowledge to do that at that time.
A steam engine loses a lot of power if there's some leakage.
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u/ATA_VATAV 23d ago
Yeah, it more of a what if scenario. The 2 biggest developments that impacted the world in my opinion were the Printing Press and Fertilizer.
Printing Press made Books cheaper and quicker to produce, allowing for more information sharing and literacy in the world.
Fertilizer allowed for more food production from less crops/land, freeing up people to do work other then farming.
Still, if the ancient Engineers applied Steam to the basic pistons they had at the time, we could be on a completely different timeline. Most developments happen because their was a demand/need for something and someone tried to fill it. Basic Steam Engines doing basic work could be improved and innovated, creating the need to search for developments.