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Grex History Item 30: Technology=more deaths? Not really...
Entered by yakoo on Fri Jun 3 23:22:17 UTC 1994:

OK...here's a technical question of sorts.  Some say that technolgy has led to
more bloody wars every so many conflicts since hte 1800's.  However, if you
have any decent knowledge of history, you would remember that more people were
killed in conflicts like the CRUSADES than in any war since in the 20th
century.  Now, the only weopons they had were non-mechanical, except if you
want to get"technical" and include hand operated weopons.  I mean guns and
rockets et al.  Now tell me, what do you think? Overall, I think that as
weopons become more potentially dangerous as with todays nuclear technology,
the world at large will for the most part be a little more hesitant to "push
the button." One final note, more people have been killed in the name of God
than for any other motive in history.  This will most indefinitely continue to
be a major fate of many of the world's poulation. Religion is beneficial to the
intellectual mind only when taken in moderation.

5 responses total.

#1 of 5 by gracel on Tue Jun 7 16:57:41 1994:

FWIW, advances in technology may have increased the proportion of people 
killed by *weapons* -- the death toll in wars before modern sanitation, 
asepsis, antibiotics, &c. included huge numbers of people who died from
contagious diseases or "minor" infections.

#2 of 5 by rcurl on Tue Jun 7 21:45:58 1994:

Re #0: what do I think about what? I saw a possibly apropos news item,
saying that something like 40% of prehistoric graves were of people
that met violent ends, while this is about 0.01% today. Has progress
been made in controlling violence?

#3 of 5 by orwell on Thu Sep 21 05:05:03 1995:

The fact is simple: There are just more people to kill nowadays. IT may sound
cruel, but ti is true!

#4 of 5 by keesan on Wed Feb 4 02:31:17 1998:

When and where were there the most people with guns moving on any one day in
the history of the world?  I heard that the answer is Michigan Nov. 14 every
year, the start of hunting season.  Is this true?

Does anyone know if telegraphy was used during the US civil war?  IT appeared
in the movie version of LIttle Women.  So did canned food.

#5 of 5 by gracel on Fri Feb 13 20:44:57 1998:

About hunting season, I don't know.  But telegraphy was around before the
Civil War (the milestone "What hath God wrought?" episode was in 1844)
and canned food was invented in connection with transporting food for
Napoleon's armies, I believe.

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