Update

history.md

@@ -6,15 +6,17 @@ This is a brief summary of history of [technology](technology.md) and [computers
 
 { A curious pattern of history is that the civilization -- or maybe rather the dominating superpowers -- are moving to the west, kind of like: middle East -> Greece -> Rome -> Holy Roman Empire -> England/France/Spain -> America. ~drummyfish }
 
-The earliest known appearance of technology related to humans may likely be the use of **[stone](rock.md) tools** by hominids in Africa some two and a half million years ago -- this is even before the appearance of modern humans, homo sapiens, that emerged roughly 600000 years ago. Learning to start and control **[fire](fire.md)** was another key invention of the earliest men; this probably happened hundreds of thousands to millions years ago, even before modern humans. Around 8000 BC the **[Agricultural Revolution](agricultural_revolution.md)** happened: this was quite a disaster -- as humans domesticated animals and plants, they had to abandon the comfortable life of hunters and gatherers and started to suffer the life of a farmer, full of extremely hard [work](work.md) in the fields (this can be seen e.g. from their bones). This led to the establishment of first cities. Primitive **writing** can be traced to about 7000 BC to China. **[Wheel](wheel.md)** was another crucial piece of technology humans invented, it is not known precisely when or where it appeared, but it might have been some time after 5000 BC -- in Ancient Egypt **The Great Pyramid** was built around 2570 BC still without the knowledge of wheel. Around 4000 BC **history starts with first written records**. Humans learned to smelt and use [metals](metal.md) approximately 3300 BC (**Bronze Age**) and 1200 BC (**Iron Age**). **[Abacus](abacus.md)**, one of the simplest [digital](digital.md) devices aiding with computation, was invented roughly around 2500 BC. However people used primitive computation helping tools, such as bone ribs, probably almost from the time they started trading. Babylonians in around 2000 BC were already able to solve some forms of **[quadratic equations](quadratic_equation.md)**.
+The earliest known appearance of technology related to humans may likely be the use of **[stone](rock.md) tools** by hominids in Africa some two and a half million years ago -- this is even before the appearance of modern humans, homo sapiens, that emerged roughly 600000 years ago. Learning to start and control **[fire](fire.md)** was another key invention of the earliest men; this probably happened hundreds of thousands to millions years ago, even before modern humans. Around 8000 BC the **[Agricultural Revolution](agricultural_revolution.md)** happened: this was quite a disaster -- as humans domesticated animals and plants, they had to abandon the comfortable life of hunters and gatherers and started to suffer the life of a farmer, full of extremely hard [work](work.md) in the fields (this can be seen e.g. from their bones). This led to the establishment of first cities that would later become city states (as the name says -- something between a city and a state, i.e. greatly independent cities with their own laws etc.). Some of the first such cities were Ur and Uruk in Mesopotamia, since around 5000 BC. Primitive **writing** can be traced to about 7000 BC to China. **[Wheel](wheel.md)** was another crucial piece of technology humans invented, it is not known precisely when or where it appeared, but it might have been some time after 5000 BC -- in Ancient Egypt **The Great Pyramid** was built around 2570 BC still without the knowledge of wheel. Around 4000 BC **history starts with first written records**. Humans learned to smelt and use [metals](metal.md) approximately 3300 BC (**Bronze Age**) and 1200 BC (**Iron Age**). **[Abacus](abacus.md)**, one of the simplest [digital](digital.md) devices aiding with computation, was invented roughly around 2500 BC. However people used primitive computation helping tools, such as bone ribs, probably almost from the time they started trading. Babylonians in around 2000 BC were already able to solve some forms of **[quadratic equations](quadratic_equation.md)**.
 
-After 600 BC the Ancient Greek [philosophy](philosophy.md) starts to develop which would lead to strengthening of rational, [scientific](science.md) thinking and advancement of [logic](logic.md) and [mathematics](math.md). Around 300 BC Euklid wrote his famous *Elements*, a mathematical work that proves theorems from basic [axioms](axiom.md). Around 400 BC **[camera obscura](camera_obscura.md)** was already described in a written text from China where **[gears](gear.md)** also seem to have been invented soon after. Ancient Greeks could communicate over great distances using **Phryctoria**, chains of fire towers placed on mountains that forwarded messages to one another using light. 234 BC Archimedes described the famous [Archimedes screw](archimedes_screw.md) and created an **[algorithm](algorithm.md) for computing the number [pi](pi.md)**. In 2nd century BC the **Antikythera mechanism, the first known [analog](analog.md) computer** is made to predict movement of heavenly bodies. Romans are known to have been great builders, they built many roads and such structures as the Pantheon (126 AD) and aqueducts with the use of their own type of **concrete** and advanced understanding of physics.
+In Greek many city states, such as Athens, Delphi and Sparta formed -- Ancient Greek culture would be seen as the golden age of civilization that would lay foundations to everything we now take for granted; Greeks to some extent advanced technology (e.g. architecture) but especially cultivated [art](art.md), philosophy and [politics](politics.md) -- Athens are credited for inventing [democracy](democracy.md) (though an "early" version, they still had slaves and many classes of citizens without voting power). In 8th century BC Homer created the epic poems Iliad and Odyssey. In 6th century BC Pythagoras describes the [Pythagorean theorem](pythagorean_theorem.md). After 600 BC the Greek [philosophy](philosophy.md) starts to develop which would lead to strengthening of rational, [scientific](science.md) thinking and advancement of [logic](logic.md) and [mathematics](math.md). Some of the most famous Greek philosophers were [Socrates](socrates.md), [Plato](plato.md), [Aristotle](aristotle.md) and [Diogenes](diogenes.md). Around 400 BC **[camera obscura](camera_obscura.md)** was already described in a written text from China where **[gears](gear.md)** also seem to have been invented soon after. Around 300 BC Euklid wrote his famous *Elements*, a mathematical work that proves theorems from basic [axioms](axiom.md). Ancient Greeks could communicate over great distances using **Phryctoria**, chains of fire towers placed on mountains that forwarded messages to one another using light. 234 BC Archimedes described the famous [Archimedes screw](archimedes_screw.md) and created an **[algorithm](algorithm.md) for computing the number [pi](pi.md)**. In 2nd century BC the **Antikythera mechanism, the first known [analog](analog.md) [computer](computer.md)** is made to predict movement of heavenly bodies. Romans are known to have been great builders, they built many roads and such structures as the Pantheon (126 AD) and aqueducts with the use of their own type of **concrete** and advanced understanding of physics.
+
+44 BC Julius Caesar, most famous leader of Ancient Rome, is killed. Rome has to be mentioned as at its time it was the biggest world superpower -- though it was a greatly corrupt, imperialist empire heavily based on work of slaves, Rome advanced technology in many ways, e.g. by inventing concrete, building roads and very long lasting aqueducts. They build monuments that would last for thousands of years, e.g. the famous Colosseum.
 
 Around 50 AD Heron of Alexandria, an Egyptian mathematician, created a number of highly sophisticated inventions such as a **vending machine** that accepted coins and gave out holy water, and a cart that could be "programmed" with strings to drive on its own.
 
 In the 3rd century Chinese mathematician Liu Hui describes operations with **negative numbers**, even though negative numbers have already appeared before. In 600s AD an Indian astronomer Brahmagupta first used the number **[zero](zero.md)** in a systematic way, even though hints on the number zero without deeper understanding of it appeared much earlier. In 9th century the Mayan empire is [collapsing](collapse.md), though it would somewhat recover and reshape.
 
-Year 476 is set to mark the fall of Roman empire and by this the end of Antiquity and **start of Middle Ages**, a time during which technological [progress](progress.md) and [art](art.md) is seen to stagnate a bit. Rome had been [collapsing](collapse.md) slowly but in its downfall it greatly resembled our [current western society](21st_century.md), it became split, people got spoiled, lost sense of morality, women started to demand [more power](feminism.md) and so on -- Roman empire was basically like the ancient times [US](usa.md) (with a similar relationship to Greece as US has to the older, wiser Europe) with highly [capitalist](capitalism.md) practices ([free trade](free_trade.md), ads, banks, insurance, even industries that achieved quite high mass production, ...), imperialism, [military](military.md) obsession, fascism, constant political fights, pragmatic thinking (e.g. rhetoric, the art of manipulation, was greatly preferred over excellence at [art](art.md)), mass entertainment and huge competitiveness -- this all led to its demise.
+Year 476 is set to mark the fall (political split) of Roman empire and by this the end of Antiquity and **start of Middle Ages**, a time during which technological [progress](progress.md) and [art](art.md) is seen to stagnate a bit. Rome had been [collapsing](collapse.md) slowly but in its downfall it greatly resembled our [current western society](21st_century.md), it became split, people got spoiled, lost sense of morality, women started to demand [more power](feminism.md) and so on -- Roman empire was basically like the ancient times [US](usa.md) (with a similar relationship to Greece as US has to the older, wiser Europe) with highly [capitalist](capitalism.md) practices ([free trade](free_trade.md), ads, banks, insurance, even industries that achieved quite high mass production, ...), imperialism, [military](military.md) obsession, fascism, constant political fights, pragmatic thinking (e.g. rhetoric, the art of manipulation, was greatly preferred over excellence at [art](art.md)), mass entertainment and huge competitiveness -- this all led to its demise.
 
 In 1429 Persian mathematician al-Kashi computed [pi](pi.md) to about 14 digit accuracy which was a great leap in this discipline.
 
@@ -30,7 +32,7 @@ In 1792 Clause Chappe invented **[optical telegraph](optical_telegraph.md)**, al
 
 By 1800 Alessandro Volta invented an **electric battery**. In 1827 André-Marie Ampère publishes a further work shedding light on [electromagnetism](electromagneticm.md). After this **[electric telegraph](telegraph.md)** would be worked on and improved by several people and eventually made to work in practice. In 1821 Michael Faraday invented the **[electromotor](electromotor.md)**. Georg Ohm and especially [James Maxwell](maxwell.md) would subsequently push the knowledge of electricity even further.
 
-In 1822 [Charles Babbage](charles_babbage.md), a great English mathematician, completed the first version of a manually powered **[digital](digital.md) mechanical computer** called the Difference Engine to help with the computation of [polynomial](polynomial.md) [derivatives](derivative.md) to create mathematical tables used e.g. in navigation. It was met with success and further development was funded by the government, however difficulties of the construction led to never finishing the whole project. In 1837 Babbage designed a new machine, this time a **[Turing complete](turing_complete.md) general purpose computer**, i.e. allowing for programming with branches and loops, a true marvel of technology. It also ended up not being built completely, but it showed a lot about what computers would be, e.g. it had an [assembly](assembly.md)-like programming language, memory etc. For this computer [Ada Lovelace](ada_lovelace.md) would famously write the Bernoulli number algorithm.
+In 1822 [Charles Babbage](charles_babbage.md), a great English mathematician, completed the first version of a manually powered **[digital](digital.md) [mechanical](mechanical.md) [computer](computer.md)** called the Difference Engine to help with the computation of [polynomial](polynomial.md) [derivatives](derivative.md) to create mathematical tables used e.g. in navigation. It was met with success and further development was funded by the government, however difficulties of the construction led to never finishing the whole project. In 1837 Babbage designed a new machine, this time a **[Turing complete](turing_complete.md) general purpose computer**, i.e. allowing for programming with branches and loops, a true marvel of technology. It also ended up not being built completely, but it showed a lot about what computers would be, e.g. it had an [assembly](assembly.md)-like programming language, memory etc. For this computer [Ada Lovelace](ada_lovelace.md) would famously write the Bernoulli number algorithm.
 
 In 1826 or 1827 French inventor Nicéphore Niépce captured **first [photography](photo.md)** that survived until today -- a view from his estate named Le Gras. About an 8 hour exposure was used (some say it may have taken several days). He used a [camera obscura](camera_obscura.md) and asphalt plate that hardened where the light was shining. Earlier cases of photography existed maybe as early as 1717, but they were only short lived.