Lost Knowledge

Benjamin B. Olshin is a Professor of Philosophy, the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, and Design at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He has written in a broad range of areas, including the history of cartography, the sociology of technology, the philosophy of science, and design.

"Another commendable aspect of Lost Knowledge is its attention to cultural diversity. The author traces a diverse range of technologies, including legends of aircraft, magic mirrors, the missing land of Atlantis, the story of Gyges and his magic ring in Plato’s Republic, etc. For each technology, the author has collected descriptions from cultural regions as wide ranging as Europe, East Asia, South Asia, Oceania, and Native American lands. This makes for a colorful narrative and supports the author’s conjecture about the mode of knowledge dissemination."- Guan Zeng-jian, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, in: Technology and Culture, January 2022, Vol. 63, No. 1: pp. 237–39."The topic of this book is fascinating. The approach is great. Many refreshing ideas were created. […] The book impresses by the variety of case studies, by the attempt to draw intercultural comparisons and maybe even yet unknown intercultural connections through the ages.”- Thorwald C. Franke, Independent Researcher, in: Atlantis Newsletter, 30 October 2020, No. 148.

• Preface ixAcknowledgements xiiiList of Figures xiv1 Speculations and Fantasies 11 Lost Knowledge, Technology, and the Patterns of History 12 The Nature of Ancient Knowledge 53 A New Approach 114 The Sources 145 Technology in the Remote Past: the Case of Frederick Soddy 196 Speculations and Methods 352 Ancient Tales of Flying Machines 401 Two Types of Tales 402 Chinese Stories of Flying Machines 453 Korean Accounts of Flying Machines 564 South Asian Tales of Flying Vehicles 755 Ainu Stories of Flying Machines 896 Hopi Lore about Flying Vehicles 967 Tales from Oceania about Flying Vehicles 998 A Synthesis of Traditions in the “Flying Horse” Tales 1019 Terms and Types 1103 Magic Mirrors and Early Televisions 1141 Mirrors in History 1142 Two Chinese Diagnostic Mirrors 1233 A Mirror to Locate Illness and a Mirror to “Illuminate the Bones” 1264 Looking into Chinese Mirrors 1315 Mirrors, Meaning, and Context 1346 Another Diagnostic Device 1367 Mirrors and Medicine 1388 Jīvaka’s Diagnostic Device 1409 A Magic Mirror Trick? 14210 Traditions of Transmitted Images in Central American and Persian Cultures 14911 Prester John and Western Traditions of Long-Distance Mirrors 15812 Remote Communication in the Works of Paracelsus and Francis Bacon 16313 Traditions Concerning Special Mirrors and Telescopes 16614 Chinese Tales of Image Transmission 17115 Technology in Context 1754 The Missing Land of Atlantis 1771 A Question of Identity 1772 Atlantis in Plato’s Timaeus 1823 Plato and the Idea of History 1904 The Geography of Atlantis 2025 Fiction, Myth, and History 2096 Transmission, Memory, and Text 2147 Atlantis in Plato’s Critias 2188 Atlas, Atlantis, and a Question of Interpretation 2369 Ancient Views of the Remote Past 23810 Numbers and Technical Detail in the Story of Atlantis 24511 Atlantis: in Search of an Interpretation 2555 Rings and Dangerous Powers 2711 The Nature of a Folktale 2712 The Tale of Gyges in Plato’s Republic 2733 The Background and Setting of the Tale of Gyges 2774 The Elements of the Tale: the Cave 2805 The Elements of the Tale: the Horse 2826 The Elements of the Tale: the Body 2847 The Elements of the Tale: the Ring 2928 Conclusions: Technology and the Fate of a Civilization 2976 The Nature, Encoding, and Transmission of Knowledge 3081 Storing Knowledge 3082 Transmission through Time 3103 The Concept of “Encoding” 3184 Knowledge and Loss 3255 Knowledge and Myth, Knowledge in Myth 3386 Changing Knowledge, Changing History 3467 Conclusions — What Did They Mean? 3531 Technology and the Concept of the “Golden Age” 3532 More on the “City of Brass” 3603 Knowledge Transmission and Cyclical History 3634 How Far Back? 3685 The Methods for the Transmission of Knowledge 3756 The Idea of “Lost Knowledge” and the Nature of Myth 3787 Looking at the Texts 3838 Reading Texts 3889 Towards the Future 391Bibliography 395Index 452