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RE: Why "Automation Destroys Jobs" is a Diseased View of Humanity
Its a bit of a stretch to say the Ancient Greeks could have built and used steam trains. Yes, they could use steam power, and yes, they could build rudimentary steam turbines, but none of these things was practical to use to power a vehicle. To do that, you would need a steam piston engine, and even if the greeks had had a blueprint, its unlikely that they would have manage the level of precision engineering and dye-making to build one that wouldnt explode. Also, even if they did manage to build one, its doubtful they had access to enough coal to keep it running for any significant amount of time.
To suggest they couldn't manage a suitable level of precision is to ignore the facts of what archaeology has already provided. For example, observe the intricacy of the Antikythera mechanism - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
Ill admit, i had never heard of the Antikythera mechanism, and its pretty amazing. But you have to keep in mind precision is all about percentage margin of error, not absolute margin of error. Its much easier to build a tiny device to spec within 1 or 2mm than it is to build a very large device to spec within 1-2mm.
You have to remember, it isnt just the greeks who knew about steam power and never came up with the steam piston engine... Its the whole renaissance and thousands of years of invention. In fact, it took over a hundred years just from the description of a theoretical steam piston device to get to real steam locomotives.
The fact is that they had one piece of the puzzle. It was a very importnat piece (and a sine qua non) but they were never close in practice.
As a side note, Its crazy how quickly ive gotten used to "steem", i keep having to go back and correct the spelling every time im talking about water vapor.
Actually... forget about steam... imagine what those guys could have achieved if they were able to harness Steem Power?!?!
They wouldn't have fallen for the Euro that's for sure! ;)