Translatio Studii
Wikipedia article of the day is Translatio Studii, “a historiographical concept, originating in the Middle Ages, in which history is viewed as a linear succession of transfers of knowledge or learning from one geographical place and time to another”.
But not just any transfers. All history, they say, is only one day on the timescale of God. And during the course of a day, the sun moves West. And knowledge is the light by which we see the world, much like the sun. So (the philosophers conclude), knowledge must always move West.
A typical model of translatio studii has the center of world knowledge starting in Sumeria around 3000 BC, moving west to Jerusalem during the time of Solomon, then west to Athens during classical Greece, then west to Rome, then west to Paris, and then (say the people talking about this, who are usually Englishmen) west to London. Where (say the people talking about this, who are usually Englishmen) it will no doubt remain for all time.
But a lot has happened since people talked about translatio studii. The idea that the greatest center of learning will always be London seems antiquated now. Yet the overall concept - that knowledge always moves West - seems to have held up pretty well. By the early 1900s, surely the center of learning had moved west from London to the US East Coast - Harvard, Yale, MIT, and the rest. Add Detroit in for the technology aspect, if you want. And now, where’s all of the most interesting technological progress happening? Where is the unevenly-distributed future laid on the thickest? Yeah - Silicon Valley, the westernmost part of the West Coast. And everyone always says the new up-and-coming superpower is China - due west from San Francisco.
Maybe that’s why there’s a Great Stagnation these days. The Sun of Knowledge is hovering somewhere above the Pacific Ocean, where there are no scientists around to take advantage of its full glow. Japan, China, and California can only bask in its twilight fringes, plodding along making minor advances. Has anyone tried starting a research university in Hawaii?
And what after that? India as the scientific superpower of the 22nd century? Iran as the scientific superpower of the 23rd? And then what? We arrive back at Sumeria, the Day of God is over, and we begin again?
Or maybe it doesn’t work that way. Maybe God respects the International Date Line. Maybe California really is the westernmost edge of the world, the Sun of Knowledge is sinking below the horizon, and from this we know the end of the world is near at hand.
Omg Thiel’s backing of seasteading finally makes sense
