ETopia: a Canticle for Leibowitz | 151 comments (151 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Been thinking along these lines for a while (4.00 / 2)

A friend of mine once blew my preconceptions by telling me that, basically, the renaissance was the introduction into western culture of (up to but not only) egyptian tech. ideas. (I can't really argue that one, but if anyone wants I can go and find the arguments...) The knowledge had been kept by the monks.

Monasteries were important contributors to the surrounding community. They were centers of intellectual progression and education. They welcomed aspiring priests to come study and learn, allowing them even to challenge doctrine in dialogue with superiors. The earliest forms of musical notation are attributed to a monk named Notker of St Gall, and was spread to musicians throughout Europe by way of the interconnected monasteries. Since monasteries offered respite for weary pilgrim travelers, monks were obligated also to care for their injuries or emotional needs. Over time, lay people started to make pilgrimages to monasteries instead of just using them as a stop over. By this time, they had sizable libraries which were sort of a tourist attraction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monastery

As I understand it, there have been highs of intellectual endeavour (e.g. when the greeks mixed with the persians) and lows; and it seems that during the lows the key knowledge of the time was held in isolated centres. I may have got this all wrong, but the islamic scholars had their translations of the ancient greek texts, and when these were translated into latin @ 1000AD the renaissance started--it took four hundred years to finally blow the old church structure out of the water (check out the dates of the foundation of our oldest universities..)...but...heh...those who understand this better please correct my ignorances!

So I'm suggesting that ideas such as ETopia are part of a long tradition of seeing the darkness coming and setting up intellectual centres (and connected!) outside of (independent of) the main social channels.

Maybe the the surviving universities will have independent energy sources (wind, solar, geo-thermal, etc.), following the old lines of...

Since monasteries offered respite for weary pilgrim travelers, monks were obligated also to care for their injuries or emotional needs. Over time, lay people started to make pilgrimages to monasteries instead of just using them as a stop over.

(Herman Hesse's Glass Bead Game comes to mind.)

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Sun Sep 23rd, 2007 at 03:37:02 PM EST
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ETopia: a Canticle for Leibowitz | 151 comments (151 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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