It's really depressing to think of how close the Romans were to an industrial revolution when the Empire collapsed and set humanity back a thousand years.
You haven't experienced a religous debate until you've argued with a 78-year old 1950 Westpoint graduate and retired Army colonel who has been working the past five years in the Himalayas to provide wireless connections to Buddhist monasteries over why my eternal soul is not condemned to an eternity of pain and suffering for not following the Good