What if...

[Ibn-Khaldun]

... someone would have put together 2 inventions: the ox powered paddle wheel boat and the Heron's engine? Would that have changed the world? If so, then how?

Also, what other ancient inventions put together would have changed the world?

[CBR]

The Hero Engine is far away from being a proper steam engine so it would not be worth much. It took a long list of inventions and discoveries to get something useful.

Maybe someone could have invented the printing press a lot earlier than Gutenberg. That would have changed a lot IMO.

[Jolt]

... the Axis won World War 2 (Germany in the Urals peace treaty/USA agreeing to a status quo with Japan, with Japan keeping China plus UK & Netherlands conquests) how many years would you give to the Soviet Union?

[Noncommunist]

The Hero Engine is far away from being a proper steam engine so it would not be worth much. It took a long list of inventions and discoveries to get something useful.

Maybe someone could have invented the printing press a lot earlier than Gutenberg. That would have changed a lot IMO.

I heard of an attempt at a printing press that worked with clay tablets. Phaisto's Disk I believe. However, there were a lot of problems which prevented it from taking off in the same way that Gutenberg could.

[CBR]

I heard of an attempt at a printing press that worked with clay tablets. Phaisto's Disk I believe. However, there were a lot of problems which prevented it from taking off in the same way that Gutenberg could.

Yes I was thinking of those discs. But Gutenberg still had the advantage of several inventions that would inspire him, so his world was very different compared to the Bronze Age Minoan culture.

[gaelic cowboy]

The Hero Engine is far away from being a proper steam engine so it would not be worth much. It took a long list of inventions and discoveries to get something useful.

Maybe someone could have invented the printing press a lot earlier than Gutenberg. That would have changed a lot IMO.

Thought the Chinese invented the printing press before Guttenberg.

I know people did invent what was very very good for the time different kinds of carbon steels but it was all very isolated and never led to any great leap in technology cos the only use was weapons

[CBR]

They used clay or wood and that combined with having a gazillion characters meant it was never as good as what Gutenberg came up with.

When it comes to steel the real deal was how to make it in large quantities at an affordable price.

[gaelic cowboy]

They used clay or wood and that combined with having a gazillion characters meant it was never as good as what Gutenberg came up with.

When it comes to steel the real deal was how to make it in large quantities at an affordable price.

Also they needed a better fuel wood and charcoal have a nasty habit of running out in a given area thats were coal comes in as a good fuel source. Naturally the real reason we needed steam engines was to pump water from the deep mines which spurred on the revolution till it gave us microwave toast and cheezzwotzits