(11-29-2023, 06:09 PM)draebeard Wrote:(11-29-2023, 04:41 PM)RayClem Wrote: Do not sell the Chinese short on inventiveness. They created some of the most important inventions in history.Your point is well taken. However I wasn't criticizing their inventiveness, but their lack of conceptual fluidity and their tendency to groupthink. This is by no means an exclusively Chinese problem. Very few people think for themselves. Which is why democracies fail, always gravitating to the lowest common denominator.
Paper to replace papyrus.
Moveable type for printing presses to replace carved plates
Gunpowder
The compass without which the Americas would never have been located by Europeans.
Alcohol brewing
The first mechanical clocks
Production of tea
Producing silk fabrics from silkworms
The umbrella without which the British would stay soaked.
Acupuncture as a medical practice
Smelting and forging iron.
Porcelain
The first seismograph t detect earthquakes
Rockets fueled with gunpowder
Bronze- China was the first country to enter the bronze age.
The Kite
The seed drill to plant rows of seeds. That is the forerunner of modern planters.
Farming in rows. Where would the corn farmers of the Midwest be without that invention.
The toothbrush made from horsehair and bamboo; now copied in plastic.
Paper money was first printed in China as an outgrowth of paper making and moveable type.
To give credit where credit is due, this list is not my own but copied from the website below. Those who believe the Chinese lack inventiveness should read this page along with the references.
https://china.usc.edu/sites/default/file...ntions.pdf
Lastly, the invention of paper money has enabled a small group of very cruel and greedy people to create money out of thin air and lend it at usury; enriching themselves whilst impoverishing the rest of us and setting us at war against each other. If there's a hell, they belong there.
Since China is far from being a democracy, even though they have an elected president, I am not sure the comment about "democracies fail, always gravitating to the lowest common denominator." has anything to do with this particular thread.
As for printed money facilitating greed, there was greed long before the first paper money was ever printed. Today we have greed with digital currency with no paper being needed. So do not blame the Chinese.