Eastern Innovators?

[Exhumed]

Multi of course (single would make for a boring thing to broadcast on TV). Though there is a good single player. You can do multiplayer w/ computers but they aren't good.

 

[Atom]

Yes, I know that there were outbreaks of innovation during that millennium. Nonetheless, taken as an era, it was an era of cultural backsliding. One of the greatest inventions of the Romans was the sewer, and there is no better illustration of the ignorance and squalor that characterized the Christian Era in Europe than the fact that its cities were built without sewers. There was a complete breakdown of civil government. This was mirrored in the arts, where only the narrow set of motifs that could be seen as supporting or inspired by the Church were used. This was the period when, ironically, the Muslim Arabs preserved the writings of the European Classical period. Even basic hygiene that we take for granted, such as bathing, was not only forgotten but actually prohibited, since immersion in water except for baptism was construed as a "sin" and anyone who could swim competently must be possessed by the devil. The water supply in Europe was so polluted by sewage runoff that even the ignoramuses who polluted it knew better than to drink it. The reliance on ale and wine for quenching thirst kept the population lightly buzzed all the time, reinforcing their slapdash performance until coffee was imported from Ethiopia.This seems to be a common theme of yours. It comes across as slightly sophomoric when the only reason you and I can even be colleagues and have this discussion is that we both have computers with internet access. Surely your computer is installed in a home with a solid roof, electric or fossil-fuel heating, a refrigerator and cooking appliances, and plumbing that delivers potable water and disposes of your wastewater cleanly? In addition to the connectivity of the internet you probably also enjoy hearing music and/or seeing a comedy or dramatic performance more than a few times a year? Since you can read and write you probably took advantage of an educational system? You undoubtedly have a wide circle of friends from disparate cultures, not just your neighbors?

And you say with a straight face that you would be happier trapped in a medieval village and the nearby area you could cover on foot?

Sure.

What you don't have, you don't miss.

You're right..I have certain comforts which I would miss if they were taken away. However it doesn't follow that we are any "happier" than people living on some small island in Papua New Guinea or in the midst of an Amazonian Rainforest. One of the peculiarities of modern life is that the more technologically advanced we become the more dissatisfied people are.

..or some people. I must admit that on the few occasions I've been without a Computer its been pretty irritating..almost like coming off some sort of drug. Its addictive. In fact sometimes I'm hard pressed to remember how exactly I managed to fill the day BEFORE the advent of the computer.