• AItoothbrush
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    673 months ago

    Ignoring the fucking 600m tall monoliths that we can build now…

      • OpenStars
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        33 months ago

        Those were built to last.

        Current buildings are built to be maintained and thereby turn even moar profits after construction.

    • @TheMachineStops@discuss.tchncs.de
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      3 months ago

      The will not last as long as the pyramids, stone is a very good building material, metals which we use is very reactive and won’t last long without maintenance. If humans went extinct the first thing to go will be the metal buildings, the pyramids will last way longer.

  • @Katana314@lemmy.world
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    133 months ago

    Sometimes I bitterly wonder if it was humanity’s acceptance of slavery that enabled those large constructions. Things like safe working conditions didn’t exist back then.

    Of course, we basically have prison slavery, but I’m sure they’d prefer the products of that labor not be so publicly visible.

    • @cynar@lemmy.world
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      263 months ago

      The pyramids were built by skilled labour. One of the options for paying taxes was to work on public works. It was also seen as a religious event, akin to modern missionaries.

      • OpenStars
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        53 months ago

        And those workers were even afforded healthcare - a rarity at the time? (I would be significantly less enthused if I found out that it only covered work-related accidents rather than all things, but even so, still not the norm for slavery.)

    • @hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      23 months ago

      I mean, from what I’ve heard, prison slavery is really widespread in the US, and apparently (this one I’m not really sure about) prisoners are currently being used to put out the fires in LA.

      And besides that, we (westeners) can nicely use all the poor countries we fucked over for all our slavery needs. As uncomfortable as it is to admit, the phone I’m using to type this most likely has had at least some slavery involved.

      (P.S. as another commenter pointed out, the pyramids weren’t built with slave labor. The ancient Greeks came to look at the pyramids much later and thought they were built by slaves because that’s how the Greeks built their stuff.)

  • @lugal@sopuli.xyz
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    43 months ago

    Gelderloos argues in Worshiping Power that early states had to convince people of their superiority. Now that states are the norm and it’s barely possible to live in a stateless society, this isn’t necessary anymore.

  • Steve Dice
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    53 months ago

    I resent European imperialism for killing interesting architecture.

      • Steve Dice
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        23 months ago

        There were thousands of cultures with clearly distinct architecture that got washed out by European hegemony. Why are you being willfully ignorant?

  • @Restaldt@lemmy.world
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    33 months ago

    I’ve graduated from the Squidward school of hard knocks but Im trying to model myself as more of a Squilliam these days.

    Any idea where the Squilliam School of Applied Fuckery is located?