What do you think is the most unnatural scientific invention in ancient times? Why?

Sophia is a humanoid robot developed by Hanson Robot Company in China. It looks like a normal human female with rubber skin and can display more than 62 facial expressions. Sophia can recognize people's facial expressions through computer calculation in the "brain", and make eye contact and normal dialogue with people.

Sophia once came to China to be a guest of CCTV's Dialogue. Anyone who is interested can search and see, just like normal people.

Figure-Sophia guest "Dialogue" program

The successful development of Sophia has promoted artificial intelligence to a new height, and also let people see the future of artificial intelligence. But I want to say that China made this kind of artificial intelligence more than two thousand years ago, and you will be surprised.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, both Lu Ban and Mozi were great inventors beyond that era, but compared with what I am going to talk about below, it is simply not worth mentioning, even if Lu Ban invented a wooden kite that can fly for three days, even if Mozi discovered pinhole imaging.

Liezi Tang Wen recorded an unnamed craftsman. Because he is a Yanshi (now Yanshi, Henan), people call him Yanshi.

Zhou Muwang, who loved traveling all his life (the one who once had a tryst with the Queen Mother of the West), traveled to the west, climbed Kunlun Mountain and climbed Yandang Mountain (Luoxia Mountain, Yandang Mountain recorded in the Shanhaijing).

Tu-Zhou Muwang saw the sculpture of the Queen Mother of the West.

On Zhou Muwang's way home, a man blocked the way and wanted to offer his skills. It was Yanshi.

Zhou Muwang summoned Yan: "What skills do you have?"

Yanshi: "I am willing to give it a try as long as there is an order from the king." But I made something, I hope your majesty can read it first. "

Zhou Muwang said, "Bring it here tomorrow and I'll watch it with you."

The next day, Yanshi took a person to see Zhou Muwang.

King Mu asked, "Who are you with?"

Yan replied, "I became a song and dance artist."

King Mu was very surprised, only to see the man scurrying slowly, stretching and bending freely, completely like a real person. He can sing with his head down, and the song can change with the rhythm of the song; Raise your hand and you can dance. Dance movements are in tune with the beat, and the movements are ever-changing and arbitrary.

Picture-it's just a picture.

Zhou Muwang thought this was a real person, so he called out his concubine to watch.

I didn't know this man was flirting with the concubines in Zhou Muwang at the end of the performance.

Zhou Muwang was furious: The woman who seduced me in front of me gave me a cuckold. It's true that the son of heaven is not arrogant. When I am an idiot, someone will push them out and behead them.

Yan was so scared that he quickly knelt down and begged for mercy, so he removed all the singers and dancers. Really dismantled, like a bench.

Zhou Muwang saw that this "person" who just sang and danced to hook up with women turned out to be made of leather, wood and resin, and painted with pigments such as chalk, black charcoal, cinnabar and green pheasant.

Zhou Muwang was too scared to believe his eyes. He descended from his throne and examined it carefully. He saw that this "man" has all the internal organs, bones and muscles, hair, and everything a man should have.

Pictures-no other meaning, just a picture.

Zhou Muwang ordered Yanshi to reassemble, and the result was restored. Zhou Muwang was curious and tried it himself: take off its heart, and this "person" will die and cannot speak; Remove its liver and it will be blind; Take away its kidney, and its leg will be paralyzed immediately.

Zhou Muwang is very happy: I have traveled around the world and dealt with immortals, so I am well informed. This is the first time I have seen such an interesting object, which is similar to the creation of human beings by Nu Wa. So Zhou Muwang ordered Yanshi and this "artificial intelligence" to be brought back to Haojing.

Later, Lu Ban and Mozi's disciples told them about it. They felt ashamed and never boasted again.

This is such a thing. If it is true, not to mention that era, even modern earth-shattering technology can throw Sofia 18 streets.

If they can really create such exquisite artifacts, what will happen if they have feelings?

Do you think it will be true?

I think it is better to delete the last word. I think there are many inventions that go against the sky in ancient times, but one that interests me most is called Baghdad battery.

One of the most interesting and controversial cultural relics in Baghdad Museum in Iraq is a clay pot. It is five to six inches high and is surrounded by a copper cylinder. The iron bar hangs in the center of the cylinder (but don't touch it). Copper cylinders and iron bars are fixed in place with asphalt plugs. The rod shows signs of corrosion, probably due to the use of acidic liquids, such as vinegar or wine.

Judging from our knowledge, someone can use batteries so early? So what is it used for?

And is this container really used to generate electricity? Is it just an ordinary container?

Many people say this is a scam.

This article consists of a 130 mm (about 5 inches) high clay pot (with an opening of half an inch) and a copper column made of rolled copper sheets with an iron bar in it. The iron bar and the copper column are separated by a plug made of asphalt at the top. The iron bar and the copper column are tightly installed at the cylinder mouth, and the middle part of the outer wall of the cylinder protrudes outward. Because the copper column is coiled and cannot isolate liquid, when the jar is filled with liquid containing citric acid, the periphery of the iron bar will also be filled with this liquid. This kind of article will be corroded even if a very small amount of electrolyte solution is added. This makes some scholars think that lemonade, grape juice or vinegar will start the electrochemical reaction between iron and copper.

Compared with modern equipment, the electricity provided by batteries in Baghdad is inefficient.

Someone copied the Baghdad battery, which can generate 0.8 to nearly two volts.

Batteries in Baghdad have been tested by the media at least twice.

They are the Arthur C. Clarke Mystery World program of British TV 1980 and the Discovery Channel mythbusters program broadcast on March 23rd, 2005.

Even today, there is still great controversy, and countless people think it is impossible, but I still think this Baghdad TV is a very interesting ancient invention.

What can a weak voltage do at that time?

Is it for divination? Or do some small experiments?

It is really interesting!

Shouldn't the most rebellious scientific inventions be the famous "four great inventions"

Although the compass was invented by clever people in China, it is mainly used to see Feng Shui. But without this invention, the era of great navigation would not come. Without this era, the communication between the East and the West would be hundreds of years behind, the collision and formation of human civilization would be delayed for many years, and the pattern of the global village would not be formed.

You said it was fate, not fate?

And gunpowder. Although our lively ancestors invented gunpowder, it was mainly used to make firecrackers, which made our festivals extremely lively, and weddings and funerals also added more lively atmosphere because of gunpowder. However, without gunpowder, western gun technology would not develop on a large scale. If they had stayed in their own cold weapon era, China would not have opened to the outside world during the Opium War, relying on what the West used to plunder underdeveloped areas and establish one colony after another. If you don't open the door, Qing may have a long-term stability, and maybe you will tie a braid behind your head and shout, long live, long live.

You said that this invention is not against the sky, not only against the sky, but also against the sky.

And paper making. Without the discovery of papermaking, all articles are still engraved on bamboo slips and written on expensive silk. Literati write on bamboo slips with a knife, which greatly reduces the efficiency of writing, and culture cannot be spread. Without spread, there will be no progress. Maybe our civilization will go back to a thousand years ago.

You say this invention goes against the sky?

Let's talk about printing. Without movable type printing, all books would be copied. How expensive will that book be? Most people can't afford to read. If they can't afford to read books, they will be ignorant, and ignorance will be deceived. They think they are born cheap and should be enslaved. There will be no Renaissance, and there will be no mass dissemination of knowledge. If knowledge does not spread, technology will not spread.

You say this invention goes against the sky?

Four great inventions and some small objects.

The first one, of course, is the famous "China boots", which is what foreigners call stirrups.

Stirrup is the crystallization of China people's wisdom.

White, an expert in the history of British science and technology, said, "Few inventions are as simple as stirrups, and few inventions are of such great significance."

Although the stirrup is a small object, it is of great significance to people in the era of relying on animal transport. He freed the knight's hands and allowed him to wield heavy weapons on horseback.

The stirrup first discovered in China appeared in the Sixteen Kingdoms period, while it did not appear in Europe until the 6th century. It was first found in the graves of Avar people in Hungary. Avar people are descendants of Rouran people in Mongolian Plateau.

So stirrups are also called China boots.

Without stirrups, it is hard to imagine cavalry shooting arrows with bows at once, and it is hard to imagine them galloping freely. Of course, this picture may be difficult to appear:

The second is naturally the Warring States gear. Just look at the picture. Needless to say, this is from the fourth century BC.

Keywords transparent bronze mirror, standing wave fish washing, two-tone chime, algae well,

The transparent bronze mirror can expose the pattern on the back of the bronze mirror from the light and shadow.

According to the basic principle, the uneven thermal expansion and cold contraction of thin and thick patterns in bronze mirror casting make the mirror surface slightly change in curvature, which is amplified by the reflection of light.

Standing wave fish wash, standing wave is a kind of enhanced pattern produced by reflection and superposition of waves in regular space. This is an acoustic phenomenon.

Two-tone chime, a chime can play two pitches that restrict each other. When playing the A sound, the B sound is suppressed, and vice versa.

These two sounds have a common multiple relationship with wavelength.

Seaweed well,

This is the most interesting. Algae wells can form a strange wind bucket.

It has a chimney effect on the wind, and some aerodynamic wind and cold air grids are carved around it.

A pavilion with algae wells is equivalent to an air-conditioning ventilator overhead, which can activate the surrounding hot air to pull it up naturally.

Make the pavilion exceptionally cool and become a gazebo.

Some pavilions are also equipped with wells and water storage wells, which are cooled by pumping cold air and become well pavilions. And ice storage in ice room pits and pavilions.

Caisson is a kind of cooling tower with large surface area.

Contrary to the fate of cultural relics, it will make you feel something that is not invented by people of that era. Speaking of which, I can think of these immediately:

1. Warring States Crystal Cup

This is nothing like the works of the ancients, almost exactly like the modern crystal cup. The Warring States Crystal Cup was discovered in 1990. This land is a tomb of the Warring States in Banshan Town, north of Hangzhou. The coffin in the grave has disappeared without a trace. Maybe the crystal cup comes from the coffin of the grave. This crystal cup is 15.4 cm high, 7.8 cm in diameter and 5.4 cm in bottom diameter. The cup is plain, transparent and without decorative patterns. This crystal cup is made of a whole crystal, and its technology is mainly reflected in three aspects: first, the hardness of the crystal is very high and it is difficult to process; Secondly, the cup is an inclined wall with a wide top and a narrow bottom, which leads to complicated processing. Third, how to polish. Polishing the outer wall is relatively simple, but because the crystal cup is wide on the top and narrow on the bottom, the hand can't reach in at all, so it is difficult to polish the inside. How the ancients polished the inner wall and bottom so smoothly is also an unsolved mystery. This is also the earliest crystal cup unearthed in China so far, which is unique and one of the national treasures.

2. Maya golden plane

In the mysterious tunnel in Ecuador, South America, there is an amazing thing, which is a model plane made of pure gold. This group of gold cultural relics of Mayan civilization also has a transparent appearance, because the airplane was invented in the early 20th century, and this cultural relic was unearthed in an ancient tomb about 2000 years ago, which is equivalent to the Han Dynasty in China. In the eyes of archaeologists, this is not an ancient era, but it is still amazing for the development of ancient Mayan civilization. Did the Mayans really travel around the world in this aircraft? No wonder many unsolved mysteries in the world say that Maya are descendants of aliens? However, some scholars have pointed out that this is a model of a bird, but it is similar to the shape of a modern plane, and there is nothing new.

3. Ceramic mugs

Although there is no convincing evidence to prove that the first dynasty in the history of China was Xia Dynasty, Erlitou site in Luoyang, Henan Province is undoubtedly one of the oldest urban sites in China, and it is also considered by many scholars as the site of Xia Dynasty. Among Erlitou cultural relics, the most modern cultural relic belongs to this gray pottery cup, which looks like a mug that Starbucks is selling now. This shows that this kind of cup is not just invented. As early as 5,000 years ago, the ancients in China knew how to make cups that were easy to drink and wash.

In my opinion, the three great inventions played a decisive role in the transformation from ancient people to modern people: the first was the exploitation of fire; Er Shennong tasted a hundred herbs; Third, the characters created by Cang Xie. Without fire, human beings can only eat raw food. How many people will starve to death? How many people will die without herbs? Without words, how can people who survive communicate? Even after thousands of years, in such a developed modern age, the dialects in China have puzzled people who have never heard of them! I think it is more difficult to understand than a foreign language ... If you want to communicate, only words are available! So I think all other inventions are based on this, that's all!

This bronze mirror is amazing. Under the illumination of light, the pattern on its back can be directly mapped to the wall. Therefore, it is also called "sunglasses".

At present, many transparent mirrors of the Han Dynasty have been unearthed in China, the most famous of which is the "Seeing the Sun Mirror" of the Western Han Dynasty. Its workmanship is exquisite, and there is an inscription on the outside of the back pattern, "See the sun, the world is bright."

On the principle of transparent mirror, Shen Kuo, a famous scientist in Song Dynasty, described it in his book Meng Qian Bi Tan:

According to the research of modern scholars, this kind of transparent mirror, due to the different thickness of concave and convex parts of the mirror back pattern, produces casting stress after solidification and contraction, and compressive stress after casting, thus forming elastic deformation in physical properties.

It can be seen that the invention and forging of transparent mirror fully embodies the superb optical and mechanical development level of China in Han Dynasty, which is equally amazing even in today's advanced technology!

This is a great invention in ancient China, which can be described as an ingenious engineering creation. Mortise and tenon is a very delicate structural invention, which can not only bear a large load, but also allow the structure to have certain deformation. Therefore, tenon-mortise structure not only makes the building structure more firm, but also can offset some earthquake energy through adaptive deformation, thus playing a good role in shock absorption.

Therefore, it is not difficult to find that modern cement concrete buildings are basically seriously damaged or collapsed after an earthquake disaster in a certain place, but some local ancient mortise and tenon buildings often stand. Therefore, we have to say that the invention and creation of tenon-mortise structure was also an invention against nature in ancient China.

Author: Cheap

Many inventions in ancient China make today's China feel ashamed. In modern China, successive wars destroyed Chinese civilization, but there was no fault. Looking at today's Japan, we can still vaguely see the shadow of ancient China. Today, we can only look at the cultural relics rediscovered from ancient tombs and lament the lost civilization and amazing creativity. ...

1. Luban, also known as Luban and Gonggong Class, was born in Dunhuang, Gansu, and was the most famous craftsman in ancient China. He once built a big wooden bird in Liangzhou. Every time he patted the organ on the bird's wing three times, the wooden bird spread its wings and flew behind it. Luban traveled around the world with him, and it was very pleasant to see the dragon without seeing the tail. Once, his wife was pregnant, and Lu Ban had to stay at home with his pregnant wife. His father was surprised that there was such a big bird in Luban's yard, so Luban's wife told the secret truthfully. My father climbed onto the bird with a curiosity to explore scientific reasons, and hit its wings dozens of times at will, and the big bird flew into the sky. Unfortunately, my curious father didn't learn how to stop the big bird from flying like this. When the people of Wu saw a strange big bird flying in the air, they thought it was a monster, so they shot arrows at the same time. As a result, the old man who wanted to be the first generation pilot in China was too ambitious, and he changed from a bird man to a hedgehog. When Lu Ban heard the news, he was furious and took back his father's body by bird. Because he resented Wu for shooting his father indiscriminately, he built a wooden fairy in Suzhou, pointing to the southeast, and Wu had a drought for three years. Wu didn't understand that divination was originally done by Lu Ban, so he quickly gathered his belongings and asked Lu Ban to forgive him. Lu Ban took a big axe and cut off the fairy's arm. It suddenly rained heavily in Wu, and people came and went. Of course, the latter paragraph is absurd, but at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, it was recorded in the history books that Lu Ban used the modern flying tool wooden kite to sneak into the capital of song dynasty.

2. Cattle herding Liu Ma

Cattle herding Liu Ma should be a famous invention of Zhuge Liang, which was invented by Zhuge Liang during the Northern Expedition for the convenience of transporting grain. According to historical records, Zhuge Liang used cattle herding in the fifth Northern Expedition and Liu Ma in the sixth Northern Expedition. Cattle herding Liu Ma is good at uphill and downhill, which is suitable for mountainous areas, because their images are like cows and horses. There is a rope in it. Both ends of the rope are connected with the legs and twisted every 20 kilometers.

3. At the beginning of Wu Zetian's accession to the throne, during the Ruyi period, a craftsman in Jiangsu presented an object called Twelve Old Cars, which was to be used to report twelve noon. However, when his horse is due south, the meridian gate will automatically open immediately, and there will be a villain inside. No matter where the car is, it will be exactly the same as above. When was the compass invented? Traditionally, among the four great inventions, except papermaking, which was invented by Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the other three were invented in the Song Dynasty. In fact, this understanding is debatable. "Sina" appeared in the Warring States period in history, when people discovered the role of magnets.

Obviously, Wu Zetian's twelve-year-old car also uses this principle. What is even more surprising is that westerners used western clocks and watches to pay tribute to the royal family in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, while China had invented and skillfully applied this instrument in the Wu and Zhou Dynasties. I don't know why he disappeared later. It was this craftsman in Jiangsu who provided something called "Muhuotong" and put a fire on the plate. No matter how it was turned over, the fire would not go out. Was the fire burned by this man who was unknown at that time?

4. Guess what this is? Yes, it's a sewer pipe. When can you guess? Qin dynasty, and it was repaired when the six countries were not unified. Look at the launching facilities of "one rain and one sea" in many cities today ... When the sewers in Japan are as spacious as underground castles, we have been still for 3000 years; You know, 3000 years ago, Japan was just a group of barbarians, barbarians who ate hair and drank blood ... Some people may think that the Qin Dynasty has not been 3,000 years until now, only more than 2,000 years. Well, then, let's give it 3000 years.

This is the Moon Dam in Shouxian County, Anhui Province. Shouxian was called Shouchun in ancient times, and Liu An, king of Huainan, and his friends cooked tofu here. Yuan Shu, the son of the Three Kingdoms, proclaimed himself here. It is well-known that Emperor Wen of Sui built a modern drainage system during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, and it is well-known that Liu Huan built a Moon Dam on this basis during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty.

Where is this cow? Cows can flood water now, and they can still be used now. It can be seen that the ancients were far smarter and wiser than we thought today. Only unexpected things are impossible. And those westerners who mocked China's ancient backwardness in science and technology may have never heard of it, never seen it, or even suspected that it was a gobbledygook. However, these incredible inventions are clearly recorded in the notes of the literati in the Tang Dynasty, which makes people stunned and unimaginable today.

Unfortunately, the feudal rulers in ancient China attached too much importance to agriculture and military affairs, and their scientific and technological inventions were only used here. Disdain many folk wisdom and original scientific and technological inventions, respond passively, and even disdain to call it "strange technology", leaving this grand "folk manufacturing" to fend for itself. In addition, at that time, the whole society did not encourage and guide craftsmen to carry out scientific and technological innovation, but thought that such innovation and creation were inaction. The wonderful skills in history books are gradually lost, and the masters of science and technology are gradually disappearing and dispersing.

In such a well-behaved society, it is a deep regret that the emperors who played politics and the people who only worked in the fields all day long, the ancient inventions and creations of China, which once left a brilliant light of scientific and technological civilization, finally did not reappear, which led to the backwardness of modern China's scientific and technological level and the gap with western countries.

There were many (most) inventions of fate in ancient China. In addition to the four great inventions, I will give the following examples.

First, Chinese characters.

From knotting to the legendary "Cang Xie made the word cry",

China invented writing to bid farewell to the wild times. Chinese characters are constantly developing: Oracle Bone Inscriptions, epigraphy (Zhong Ding), seal script, official script, regular script, running script, cursive script,

From simple to complex, and from complex to simple; Pictographic characters to Liu Shu [six word-making methods: pictographic characters, index characters, knowing characters, pictophonetic characters, borrowing (borrowing) characters, and transliteration characters]. Most of the characters invented by ancient civilizations of other nationalities have disappeared and are rarely used, but China's square Chinese characters are still in practical use today. There used to be a textbook saying that Chinese characters would eventually take the road of pinyin, but now it seems unnecessary. Chinese characters are mostly a combination of "form, sound and meaning", which is concise and rich in meaning: among several languages used by the United Nations, only Chinese characters occupy the position of length, with the least paper. With the development and revival of the Chinese nation, more and more foreigners are learning Chinese and Chinese characters, and of course there are many jokes.

Chopsticks, pottery and porcelain.

The knives and forks used in western food today were eliminated thousands of years ago. The legend of chopsticks is that when Dayu cooked food in the wild, he found that the original knives, forks and other tableware were not brought, so some people broke long branches to hold food, and found that it was better than knives and forks, so it was gradually popularized, replacing the knives and forks made of bones, wood and metal. Chopsticks can hold almost all solid food,

Its scientific principle seems to be "lever balance (labor-saving) principle", which can exercise the flexibility of people's hands (fingers), and then exercise the brain, nervous system, etc., making people smarter, so-called "clever thinking."

Bamboo chopsticks are matched with a fired ceramic spoon,

cup

Bowls and plates

Tableware and so on. Convenient, durable, hygienic and environmentally friendly. Of course, there are metal bowls and chopsticks today.

But some brands are round at both ends and easy to roll, which is not as good as traditional ones.

People in China have learned to eat with chopsticks almost since weaning. If they still can't learn to use chopsticks for a long time, they are likely to be accused of being stupid children.

There is also a lot of table manners culture with chopsticks: you can't point chopsticks at others, knock on the edge of dishes, and you can't put chopsticks directly in the middle of meals, just like offering incense to the dead ... Foreign countries, especially western Renye Fang, began to learn from China people to eat with chopsticks.

I remember a joke: two foreigners were talking:

"China people's chopsticks are really amazing!"

"Why?"

"My wife came back from China and only used chopsticks to eat and drink soup. As a result, she quickly lost several kilograms. "