# was Ancient Kemet science superior to modern science **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 24, 2015, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ancient-kemet-science-superior-to-modern-science/726034 "2015-07-24T07:29:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2015, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ancient-kemet-science-superior-to-modern-science/726034/81 "2015-07-26T22:10:31Z")
> [@Learjeff](#): > > Today we could build things to last 2000 years, if we wanted to, but that would be idiotic. We can’t assess the needs that far ahead, and we don’t want to spend the resources necessary for more than the predictable need. (Sadly, we often do less than that; for example, in the US we tend to build inferior roads because we can build more of them on a lower budget, but in the long run it bites us in the ass, requiring a higher maintenance budget. But still we focus on the short term because that’s what impacts elections. Sigh. But we KNOW we’re doing this; it’s no mystery.) Why build something that will last 1000 years when we know we’ll invent something better in 50? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2015, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ancient-kemet-science-superior-to-modern-science/726034/82 "2015-07-26T22:42:03Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Oh, it’s true - the annual flood wiped out most boundary markings, which had to be re-established every year. And the results probably ended up in court. It’s not for nothing that most ancient laws covered property and personal injury. And that God, when handing down the Ten Commandments, mostly steered away from that nightmare. “Here. Like me, be nice to your folks, don’t steal or kill, and leave me out of everything else. I have a universe to run.” > [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Then there’s the question as to which race those ancient Egyptians actually were … But we probably don’t need to go there. They were sub-Saharan Africans, just like all the royal families of Europe. [We’ve been through this before.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=544874)😉 > [@Alessan](#): > > Why build something that will last 1000 years when we know we’ll invent something better in 50? OTOH, the planners of the US highway system could have planned for a bit longer than 50 years, just in case nothing better came along. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2015, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ancient-kemet-science-superior-to-modern-science/726034/83 "2015-07-27T00:58:53Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > Floored by a 7-Eleven. Bill Whittle thinks big! Well, maybe, but the point being is, Cheops would be floored if we could pluck him through time and put him in a Seven-Eleven. It’s got all sorts of stuff the ancient Egyptians couldn’t imagine…clear glass, electric lights, running water, hot and cold, ice that’s easily accessible, preserved food, fresh fruit, security cameras, microwaves, photographs, newspapers with world news, toilet paper. This isn’t criticizing the Ancient Egyptians, but almost everything we take for granted would have been unimaginable luxury to them, because we have the science to make it practical and they didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2015, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ancient-kemet-science-superior-to-modern-science/726034/84 "2015-07-27T01:52:40Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Well, maybe, but the point being is, Cheops would be floored if we could pluck him through time and put him in a Seven-Eleven. It’s got all sorts of stuff the ancient Egyptians couldn’t imagine…clear glass, electric lights, running water, hot and cold, ice that’s easily accessible, preserved food, fresh fruit, security cameras, microwaves, photographs, newspapers with world news, toilet paper. > > This isn’t criticizing the Ancient Egyptians, but almost everything we take for granted would have been unimaginable luxury to them, because we have the science to make it practical and they didn’t. I thought it was a pretty valid point, and a profound one. Stop to think for a while of the entirety of the supply chain that stocks a typical 7-11. Transport from warehouses; factories to produce the finished goods; factories to produce the raw material; farms and mines and ranches; transportation between all these sites; energy to run the factories and the transport… A 7-11 is a kind of microcosm of our civilization. If you totaled up everyone who is involved, in any way, in supplying the goods to just one 7-11 store, you could easily arrive at several million people. All this for a jalapeno-and-cream-cheese Go-Go Taquito at 3:45 in the morning! Yum! ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2015, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ancient-kemet-science-superior-to-modern-science/726034/85 "2015-07-27T02:08:56Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Then there’s the question as to which race those ancient Egyptians actually were … But we probably don’t need to go there. Martians, who took over after they sank Atlantis. Too bad too early for Atlantic City. > [@Learjeff](#): > > Today we could build things to last 2000 years, if we wanted to, but that would be idiotic. Plastic lawn chairs, bottles and microbeads. They’ll hang around for at least 500,000 years, probably a million. > [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Well, maybe, but the point being is, Cheops would be floored if we could pluck him through time and put him in a Seven-Eleven. . . . > > . . . This isn’t criticizing the Ancient Egyptians, but almost everything we take for granted would have been unimaginable luxury to them, because we have the science to make it practical and they didn’t. Yes. But a caveman would have been floored (if he knew what one was) if an Egyptian temple or two and a pyramid were transported back to the entrance of his cave. He probably would have painted flames and a mad woodpecker on Cheops’s chariot. > [@Trinopus](#): > > Stop to think for a while of the entirety of the supply chain that stocks a typical 7-11. Transport from warehouses; factories to produce the finished goods; factories to produce the raw material; farms and mines and ranches; transportation between all these sites; energy to run the factories and the transport… A full Egyptian grain bin transported back to the aforementioned caveman. It’s all relative. When it’s time to transport whatever civilization has to offer back to us from 2,000 or 3,000 years from now, it might be a rock and a bow and arrow. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2015, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ancient-kemet-science-superior-to-modern-science/726034/86 "2015-07-27T03:15:00Z")
I’d have to see what [Melanin Theory](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=762427) says about it first. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2015, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ancient-kemet-science-superior-to-modern-science/726034/87 "2015-07-27T03:16:52Z")
**The following post is an inside joke. Almost nobody will get it.** The Scientist of pharonic Egypt knew very little. The average member of the College Of Etheric Sciences could easily surpass them. I question the wisdom of the pyramids to begin with. Why build massive tombs to dead kings while people live in squalor? We Scientists are working for a world without need, without hunger, without disease, without war. You may say that’s impossible. I can make you a believe. Heck, with my Non Corporeal Consciousness Field Quantifying And Manipulating Apparatus, I can make you believe anything I want. Just be glad I’m on the side of good. Now if you’ll excuse me, my robot butler has drawn my bath. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2015, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ancient-kemet-science-superior-to-modern-science/726034/88 "2015-07-27T03:19:58Z")
> [@Oredigger77](#): > > I have no doubt that their knowledge of alchemy was vastly superior to ours. I’m not so sure about that one either. We can actually turn lead into gold these days, it just takes a particle accelerator :p. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2015, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ancient-kemet-science-superior-to-modern-science/726034/89 "2015-07-27T03:38:46Z")
**DocCathode** : …and yet the fools call us mad! (Have you seen any of the Sonic the Hedgehog comics where the Sonic universe merges with the Megaman universe? It’s a true joy watching Dr. Eggman and Dr. Wily working cooperatively…while each simultaneously plots to betray the other and seize control of the world solely for himself. It could only be funnier if Pinky and The Brain were stirred in!) ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2015, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ancient-kemet-science-superior-to-modern-science/726034/90 "2015-07-27T04:01:12Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > Yes. But a caveman would have been floored (if he knew what one was) if an Egyptian temple or two and a pyramid were transported back to the entrance of his cave. He probably would have painted flames and a mad woodpecker on Cheops’s chariot. Sure, because the science and technology known to Cheops’s contemporaries was vastly superior to said caveman’s. Likewise, our science and technology is vastly superior to that of Cheops. So, the answer to the question “was Ancient Kemet science superior to modern science” is no. ---
**Author:** ![raventhief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raventhief/32/4_2.png) [@raventhief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raventhief)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2015, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ancient-kemet-science-superior-to-modern-science/726034/91 "2015-07-27T04:27:15Z")
> [@thanatic](#): > > from what i understand kemet science is closely connected with the spiritual world and spirituality, metaphysics etc. It sounds like you’re saying that their science wasn’t actually science. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2015, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ancient-kemet-science-superior-to-modern-science/726034/92 "2015-07-27T04:42:59Z")
No, it wasn’t science as we define it. For extra points: how they defined history (a cyclical repeat of certain types of events, regardless of actual details) and how we define history (exactly what happened with no modifications) aren’t the same thing, either. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2015, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ancient-kemet-science-superior-to-modern-science/726034/93 "2015-07-27T05:10:12Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > Yes. But a caveman would have been floored (if he knew what one was) if an Egyptian temple or two and a pyramid were transported back to the entrance of his cave. He probably would have painted flames and a mad woodpecker on Cheops’s chariot. > > > [@Captain Amazing](#): > > > > Sure, because the science and technology known to Cheops’s contemporaries was vastly superior to said caveman’s. Likewise, our science and technology is vastly superior to that of Cheops. So, the answer to the question “was Ancient Kemet science superior to modern science” is no. I hope you didn’t think I support the opposite. Cheop’s reaction to the the time-travelling 7-Eleven and the caveman’s reaction to Cheop’s time-travelling grain silo at least point to [**Clarke’s Third Law**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%27s_three_laws): Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2015, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ancient-kemet-science-superior-to-modern-science/726034/94 "2015-07-27T05:12:32Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > Yes. But a caveman would have been floored (if he knew what one was) if an Egyptian temple or two and a pyramid were transported back to the entrance of his cave. He probably would have painted flames and a mad woodpecker on Cheops’s chariot. > > > [@Captain Amazing](#): > > > > Sure, because the science and technology known to Cheops’s contemporaries was vastly superior to said caveman’s. Likewise, our science and technology is vastly superior to that of Cheops. So, the answer to the question “was Ancient Kemet science superior to modern science” is no. I hope you didn’t think I support the opposite. Cheop’s reaction to the the time-travelling 7-Eleven and the caveman’s reaction to Cheop’s time-travelling grain silo at least point to [**Clarke’s Third Law**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%27s_three_laws): Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. **ETA** that I don’t subscribe to it, since I don’t believe in magic. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2015, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ancient-kemet-science-superior-to-modern-science/726034/95 "2015-07-27T05:15:27Z")
I’m up against the blank text-box bug again, and when I edited the above post, it duplicated the whole thing, then added the edit. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2015, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ancient-kemet-science-superior-to-modern-science/726034/96 "2015-07-27T06:13:16Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Then there’s the question as to which race those ancient Egyptians actually were … But we probably don’t need to go there. It hardly matters. The ancient Egyptians were the giant exciting metropolis of their day. I would be shocked if they didn’t attract scientists and engineers from all the nearby lands, including all the way up the Nile, other nearby parts of Africa, other parts of the Mediterranean, and the fertile crescent. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2015, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ancient-kemet-science-superior-to-modern-science/726034/97 "2015-07-27T07:19:43Z")
Is this some [Nuwaubian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuwaubian_Nation) or maybe [Moorish Science](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moorish_Science_Temple_of_America) crap? Basically Black Muslim + trappings of Rosicrucianism. > [@Jackmannii](#): > > The OP’s premise (extrapolated to ancient societies in general) is very common among alt health loons. > > Ancient/primitive people lived longer/healthier lives because they had magickal herbs/lifestyles/foods/chakras/unfluoridated water and if we could adopted those practices we could live to be 150. > > It’s a form of “nostalgie pour la boue”. It’s amazing. All the ancients in the chronicles lived long lives (if not murderstabbed young), therefore they were on to an ancient secret that we have since lost. It’s almost like all the important stories were written about rich kngs and pharaohs who had the wherewithal to live long and not Bob McDitchdigger or Mary Fishwife. > [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Then there’s the question as to which race those ancient Egyptians actually were … But we probably don’t need to go there. Ptolemy I Soter was the black Greek private dick, that’s a sex machine to all the chicks. Who was Greek. From Greece. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2015, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ancient-kemet-science-superior-to-modern-science/726034/98 "2015-07-27T09:11:03Z")
The Ptolemys weren’t Egyptian - they were the people who ruled the Egyptians. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2015, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ancient-kemet-science-superior-to-modern-science/726034/99 "2015-07-27T09:47:10Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > From the ground up, is how I’d do it. I’m no Kemetian though. Shows how much you know, dum-dum. You build 'em from the top down. That way gravity does all the work. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ancient-kemet-science-superior-to-modern-science/726034.md?page=4)