PLATO’S ALARM CLOCK: AND OTHER AMAZING ANCIENT INVENTIONS

Book ID/图书代码： 09220019C00032

English Summary/英文概要： We all like to think we are pretty smart. New medical advances seem to come along every day; space travel suddenly doesn’t seem so difficult; self-driving cars are no longer a thing of the future . but if we were stranded on a desert island tomorrow, most of us wouldn’t know how to catch a fish or start a fire, let alone rebuild all that extraordinary technology we now rely on.

The truth is that we’re not necessarily more clever than our ancestors, we just have an accumulation of centuries of technological progress on which we can rely. As this book shows, many of the ancients were much more advanced that we realize - indeed there are recent inventions that had actually been discovered centuries earlier and then forgotten. And what about all those modern day devices and machines that rely on ancient inventions such as paper, levers and gears?

From brain surgery in the Stone Age to Chinese whisky from the 7th century BC, to Damascus steel - once the hardest metal in the world, which we no longer know how to make - this insightful book collects together the stories of hundreds of ancient devices, inventions and breakthroughs from around the world and across the centuries, giving us a fascinating glimpse into past eras that were far more technologically advanced than we sometimes realize.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 我們都喜歡認為我們很聰明。似乎每天都有新的醫學進展。太空旅行似乎並不那麼困難；自動駕駛汽車已不再是未來，但是，如果明天我們被困在荒島上，我們大多數人將不知道如何釣魚或生火，更不用說重建我們現在所依賴的所有非凡技術了。事實是，我們不一定比我們的祖先更聰明，我們只是可以仰賴幾百年技術進步的積累。

你知道阿基米德是古希臘有名的數學家，但你知道據說他還發明了史上第一個死光武器嗎？

你以為古代是一個時間觀念鬆散的世界，古代人過著悠閒的生活？事實上不是每個古人都這樣！柏拉圖為了叫醒他的學生起床，讓他們能準時來上課，發明了史上第一個鬧鐘！

這本有趣的古代發明史，蒐集了人類史上各種意想不到的發明故事，我們以為現代科技十分進步，事實上現代我們使用的科技有許多發明都奠基在這些古代發明上，從石器時代的腦部外科手術到曾經是世界上最堅硬的金屬的大馬士革鋼（直到現在人們還是不知道古人是怎麼做出來的），這些驚人的發明將讓你發現我們的祖先比我們想得還要更聰明、更有科技思維。 (Zoe)

Awards/获奖情况：

About the Author/作者介绍： James M. Russell has a philosophy degree from the University of Cambridge, a post-graduate qualification in critical theory, and has taught at the Open University in the UK. He currently works as a freelance writer, designer and editor. He is the author of A Brief Guide to Philosophical Classics, A Brief Guide to Spiritual Classics and A Traveller’s Guide to Infinity. He lives in north London with his wife, daughter and two cats.

Format:HARDCOVER

Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：NOT AVAILABLE

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

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