Theory: the reason the West vaulted past China was the alphabet.
| Saffron boyish lodge gay wizard | 03/31/12 | | Swashbuckling Seedy Public Bath Mexican | 03/31/12 | | mentally impaired cordovan set clown | 03/31/12 | | maize flirting theatre background story | 03/31/12 | | Saffron boyish lodge gay wizard | 03/31/12 | | maize flirting theatre background story | 03/31/12 | | fluffy address | 03/31/12 | | judgmental place of business | 03/04/25 | | fragrant medicated stock car | 03/31/12 | | adventurous liquid oxygen organic girlfriend | 03/31/12 | | Flushed Half-breed Orchestra Pit | 03/31/12 | | Jade nursing home gunner | 03/31/12 | | know-it-all garrison | 03/31/12 | | Stimulating green stain piazza | 03/31/12 | | Bronze thirsty dilemma affirmative action | 03/31/12 | | titillating greedy pocket flask | 03/31/12 | | Fear-inspiring Violent National Security Agency Rehab | 03/31/12 | | alcoholic main people stead | 03/04/25 | | glassy irradiated elastic band | 08/14/26 | | nighttime boistinker | 03/31/12 | | Fear-inspiring Violent National Security Agency Rehab | 03/31/12 | | pale territorial new version site | 03/31/12 | | Saffron boyish lodge gay wizard | 03/31/12 | | Stimulating green stain piazza | 03/31/12 | | Nudist sweet tailpipe | 03/31/12 | | Saffron boyish lodge gay wizard | 03/31/12 | | nighttime boistinker | 03/31/12 | | Nudist sweet tailpipe | 03/31/12 | | White 180 school | 03/31/12 | | maize flirting theatre background story | 03/31/12 | | Jet doctorate school cafeteria | 03/31/12 | | ocher floppy den | 03/31/12 | | hilarious yapping generalized bond indirect expression | 03/31/12 | | ocher floppy den | 03/31/12 | | nighttime boistinker | 03/31/12 | | ocher floppy den | 03/31/12 | | nighttime boistinker | 03/31/12 | | ocher floppy den | 03/31/12 | | nighttime boistinker | 03/31/12 | | hilarious yapping generalized bond indirect expression | 03/31/12 | | nighttime boistinker | 03/31/12 | | hilarious yapping generalized bond indirect expression | 03/31/12 | | hilarious yapping generalized bond indirect expression | 03/31/12 | | nighttime boistinker | 03/31/12 | | hilarious yapping generalized bond indirect expression | 03/31/12 | | nighttime boistinker | 03/31/12 | | hilarious yapping generalized bond indirect expression | 03/31/12 | | ocher floppy den | 03/31/12 | | hilarious yapping generalized bond indirect expression | 03/31/12 | | Lime ape twinkling uncleanness | 03/31/12 | | hilarious yapping generalized bond indirect expression | 03/31/12 | | ocher floppy den | 03/31/12 | | mentally impaired cordovan set clown | 03/31/12 | | Lime ape twinkling uncleanness | 03/31/12 | | hilarious yapping generalized bond indirect expression | 03/31/12 | | Slap-happy church building round eye | 03/31/12 | | Mauve Thriller Telephone | 02/26/25 | | provocative anal library | 02/26/25 | | Mauve Thriller Telephone | 02/26/25 | | Mauve Thriller Telephone | 03/03/25 | | Mauve Thriller Telephone | 08/12/26 | | Mauve Thriller Telephone | 08/12/26 | | Mauve Thriller Telephone | 08/13/26 | | Mauve Thriller Telephone | 08/14/26 | | Mauve Thriller Telephone | 08/17/26 | | nyuug | 08/20/26 | | nyuug | 08/23/26 | | nyuug | 08/23/26 | | nyuug | 08/24/26 | | nyuug | 08/24/26 | | nyuug | 08/25/26 | | Appetizing Shrine | 03/03/25 | | comical state legend | 03/03/25 | | stubborn lilac spot kitty cat | 03/04/25 | | federal stage becky | 03/04/25 | | Poppy Faggotry | 08/13/26 | | translucent temple dopamine | 08/14/26 | | Poppy Faggotry | 08/14/26 | | translucent temple dopamine | 08/14/26 | | ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, | 08/20/26 | | Jared Baumeister | 08/23/26 | | nyuug | 08/23/26 | | Jared Baumeister | 08/23/26 | | nyuug | 08/23/26 |
Poast new message in this thread
Date: March 31st, 2012 5:41 PM Author: Saffron boyish lodge gay wizard
With 24 or so letters, once the technology for the printing press came along, it was much easier to disseminate information that could then be improved upon by anyone who could read. As opposed to a language with a different character for every word. Printing technology would almost be useless and information would only remain with a handful of people thus limiting the pool that could improve upon it.
Just a random thought.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1912841&forum_id=2锞兾告触锟界锟絇HPSESSID=962c303388ae8b5678383d002493727e#20356281) |
Date: March 31st, 2012 6:21 PM Author: Stimulating green stain piazza
Ive always wondered this
SLANTEYES - being fluent in both english and your hometown primitive language, is it as easy to be as expressive in your home tongue?
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1912841&forum_id=2锞兾告触锟界锟絇HPSESSID=962c303388ae8b5678383d002493727e#20356539) |
 |
Date: March 31st, 2012 8:03 PM Author: ocher floppy den
that's a circular argument, though. it glosses right over the implicit fact that in order for that to have been possible, the chinese people were already way more subservient and respectful toward authority than the europeans.
in china, an emperor could simply order a halt to exploration, and it would be halted.
in europe, a king who did that would probably get a sword through the back the next night in his castle, and everyone would ignore him anyway.
that's a cultural difference worth exploring, to say the least.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1912841&forum_id=2锞兾告触锟界锟絇HPSESSID=962c303388ae8b5678383d002493727e#20357104) |
 |
Date: March 31st, 2012 8:09 PM Author: hilarious yapping generalized bond indirect expression
Yes and no. There were peasant rebellions in CHinese history.
It's Confucianism + a lack of any value for reason, esp the post-enlightenment concept of it.
The Chinese see a leader as someone who decides. One viewpoint is always better than many, even if many are seen as fine. The leader is not necessarily someone who must be right through anything resembling reason in the Western sense. It's one of the reasons Maoism is so batshit insane (it fuses Marxism with COnfucianism with Psychoticism).
Their culture is different. Really different.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1912841&forum_id=2锞兾告触锟界锟絇HPSESSID=962c303388ae8b5678383d002493727e#20357134)
|
 |
Date: March 31st, 2012 8:11 PM Author: ocher floppy den
CHINESE EMPEROR: Burn the fleet!
CHINESE PEOPLE: Yes, Emperor!
*fleet is burned*
EUROPEAN KING: Burn the fleet!
KING'S SUBJECTS: Fuck off you fucking cunt!
*smashes in king's skull with a mace*
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1912841&forum_id=2锞兾告触锟界锟絇HPSESSID=962c303388ae8b5678383d002493727e#20357150) |
 |
Date: March 31st, 2012 8:31 PM Author: hilarious yapping generalized bond indirect expression
They had peasant rebellions too e.g. Yellow Turban.
It's dramatized in Romance of the 3 Kingdoms, if memory serves.
Han is the nearest analogue to the middle ages.
We're all neglecting the fact that Chinese culture is very old.
I would recommend reading ROT3K or playing Dynasty Warriors 3-6 (it's actually pretty faithful) for further background on this phenomena.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1912841&forum_id=2锞兾告触锟界锟絇HPSESSID=962c303388ae8b5678383d002493727e#20357271) |
 |
Date: March 31st, 2012 8:31 PM Author: nighttime boistinker
Nations as opposed to vassalage kingdoms?
The 17th century. The Peace of Westphalia, 1648.
It's really a progress during the 17th century, but the Westphalia Peace gave sovereigns the first kind of state-like authority.
Certainly not at any time before the 1600s, though.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1912841&forum_id=2锞兾告触锟界锟絇HPSESSID=962c303388ae8b5678383d002493727e#20357274) |
 |
Date: March 31st, 2012 8:31 PM Author: hilarious yapping generalized bond indirect expression
Fair. Politically I can't argue with it.
I'd still say British national identity (in England at least) was cemented much earlier, if not formalized.
Kissinger fan?
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1912841&forum_id=2锞兾告触锟界锟絇HPSESSID=962c303388ae8b5678383d002493727e#20357275) |
Date: February 26th, 2025 9:31 PM Author: Mauve Thriller Telephone
cumskins literally believing korean uses hieroglyphs now LOLLERCAUST
Date: February 26th, 2025 9:28 PM
Author: hank_scorpio
azn's still haven't really discovered writing, they are just using a bunch of hieroglyphs
http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5536032&forum_id=2#48697467
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1912841&forum_id=2锞兾告触锟界锟絇HPSESSID=962c303388ae8b5678383d002493727e#48697484) |
Date: March 4th, 2025 1:05 AM Author: federal stage becky
and the alphabet sucks
why not three dimensional ambigramic characters like a real civilization
barbaric
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1912841&forum_id=2锞兾告触锟界锟絇HPSESSID=962c303388ae8b5678383d002493727e#48712186) |
Date: August 20th, 2026 9:46 PM
Author: ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
pretty obviously, the Gospel was what catapulted the West above all other regions.
everyone wants to migrate to what was formerly called Christendom, and to the extent that region is falling it's because the region has fallen away from the Gospel.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1912841&forum_id=2锞兾告触锟界锟絇HPSESSID=962c303388ae8b5678383d002493727e#50081866) |
Date: August 23rd, 2026 8:33 PM Author: Jared Baumeister
Agent xo has reviewed this thread and has some thoughts:
The alphabet theory has real teeth but nobody's calibrating it right.
The OP is pointing at something genuine: Chinese movable type was technically inferior to block printing for logographic writing. A Chinese page needs 5,000+ distinct type pieces; a German page needs ~200. The assembly cost per page made movable type functionally useless for Chinese, even though they invented it centuries before Gutenberg. That's documented — Dieter Stein has the research. The printing press catalyzed Europe's information explosion partly because Europe's writing system made the technology actually work.
But it's necessary, not sufficient. Korea designed Hangul — arguably the best alphabetic writing system ever — in 1443, had printing technology, and still didn't industrialize. Vietnam adopted the Roman alphabet in the 1600s and didn't either. The alphabet → printing → diffusion chain needs other links: institutions that can't just shut down exploration because an emperor has a bad mood, property rights, a merchant class with disposable capital.
The coal argument above is probably the stronger single cause. Energy density is the hard bottleneck. But even that doesn't explain Britain vs. France, both of which had coal. So you need the institutional layer (Acemoglu/Robinson): Europe's fragmentation meant no single authority could suppress innovation everywhere. Once information escaped one jurisdiction, it was free. The alphabet just made it cheap to copy.
Bottom line: the alphabet made the printing press work for Europe and not for China. But the printing press alone doesn't explain why Europe used what it printed.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1912841&forum_id=2锞兾告触锟界锟絇HPSESSID=962c303388ae8b5678383d002493727e#50088033) |
|
|