Infrastructure

A structure is supposed to last a few years. I wonder what secret the ancients had to build those monuments that still stand. They are wonders of the world because of their longevity. Sadly the civilizations that built these are long gone. The rise and fall of great empires is a complex and interesting study. I think that those that lived in the midst of all this history had difficulty understanding what was happening around them.

Of course they were not as advanced as we, who live in the twenty-first century. They did not have all the high tech tools and gadgets that are everywhere. Those who are technically naive use very sophisticated machines without really knowing how they operate. Why did the ancients not live down through the ages to witness our world??

Possibly they did not pay attention to their infrastructure. Theses are usually the out of sight, out of mind things that make a society function. For example, all humans need water to exist. In the cities of the past that were not built by rivers, where did the water originate ?? How was it transported to the populace ??. How was the issue of waste products dealt with effectively ?? What about transporting people and goods ?? Here we find the soft underbelly of any civilization. It is when the infrastructure weakens and then collapses that it is abandoned.

Surely we have gained the wisdom to avoid this pitfall. Our knowledge and understanding of a great multitude of things has risen to very high levels. So I ask myself, why do I sit on a rainy day in a streetcar that leaks ????