The Owl with No Clothes
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Tweet“Eureka!” You know who said that? Archimedes did. You know why? Because he figured out how to measure the density of gold, while slipping into a bath—so goes the legend—after which he immediately spoke the famous word, and went padding off down the street, leaving wet footprints, presumably on the way to some off-camera laboratory. (Apparently visionary Sicilian technologists were so well esteemed, in the highly civilized Hellenistic world, that the density of gold was considered a relatively practical matter.)
You know what they don’t teach you in schools, though? (Not that they teach that first part either, mind you.) They don’t mention how unlikely it is that whatever town Archimedes lived in would be positioned to benefit from his advances today. Nope: it is very likely poor old Archimedes would get the ax if he tried his bathtub breakthrough shenanigans around here. [ring ring] “Hello, police? The weird lazy guy with the beard? He’s offending decency!” And when the SWAT team rolls up, and Archimedes refuses to immediately desist—“No really, I’m going to be famous!” (waving arms)—his life would be over, practically speaking.
Sicily had experiences with policing enforced by remote authoritarian entities like Wall Street and the Pentagon, as well. Times that weren’t known for great advances, or flourishing economies, like all of Archimedes’ days but one were. Eventually Rome invades, with its negligent soldiers. And Rome arms its own police force, and buys them giant fortresses—with insurmountable wealth sent from the capital.
Chris Palmisano
