History of Science & Technology Q&A (November 6, 2024)

Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the history of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa Questions include: Were there any ancient travel bloggers (or the ancient equivalent) who wrote about other places they visited? - Did ancient civilizations like Rome or Egypt actually communicate with each other? - How did they know about each other? - How influential was Babylonian science on Greek natural philosophy? - How did people know how to tell time before clocks? - Did scientists back in the day have rivals or "frenemies" like we see in movies?​​ Did ancient people have the equivalent of church bells to mark the time in cities? - Were there any ancient or medieval "tech hacks" that we'd still find useful today? - Why do you think the ancient Greeks had a fondness for abstract levels of thought? - Is there an aspect of culture that enables this? - How did people figure out that the Earth is round?