Primitive Technology
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2016–2018
4:32 · 59M views · Jul 29, 2016
A Primitive Technology episode in which the creator builds a bow-drill-driven bark fan to blow air into a fire, using only natural materials. It shows the progression from fanning a fire by hand to a rotary forge blower.
HN readers like the channel for showing technology rebuilt from raw materials, and cite it as a vivid example of knowledge building on knowledge.
3 comments from Hacker News
My assumption would be something close to the smelter shown on Primitive Technologies YouTube channel. Find the smelter video here: this video This channel is fascinating. The history nerd within me finds satisfaction in every video he has recorded.
That video[1] is part of a series by this guy who is out recreating technology literally from dirt. If you're a prepper you want this guy on your team, you'll advance to the castle age way before anyone else does :-) [1] this video
Knowledge builds on knowledge, and (so far as we know) there's no shortcut to the gradual acquisition of knowledge. I think this is best exemplified by one particular episode of the YouTube "Primitive Technology" series: this video . In this video, the creator builds a forge blower from sticks, leaves, stones, and vines. All materials that would've been available to primitive man 40,000 years (or more) ago... ...but the forge blower wasn't known to human kind until the 1600s! In other words, the creator of the "Primitive Technology" videos was able to build a forge blower because he knew about the concept (and, presumably, the principles of pressure and centrifugal force that make it all work). Those had to be discovered through thousands of years of an arduous process of trial, error, analysis, and teaching. So, the Einstein of 40,000 years ago likely existed, but he may have only been able to discover and convince others to, say, pre-burn wood to generate charcoal. In terms of an advancement over existing technology, I'd argue such an advance would be even more significant than General Relativity, and yet it's technology that we can run down to the corner store and procure for $5 a bag today.