this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2024
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to be fair yes they invented paper, paper money, umbrellas, wheelbarrows, gunpowder, etc.
chinese govt claims to have invented high-speed rail, e-commerce, mobile payments and bike sharing, but those are all untrue.
but overall, given a billion people, i rarely see them invent game changers. maybe the artificial synthesis of starch will be a big one. or solid state EV batteries.
One theory Ive read about is that they probably merely iterated on the (likely middle eastern, probably egyptian or persian) invention of "greek fire". Since its only a single ingredient difference between one of the known formulations of it.
And the Europeans made gunpowder useful with the invention of pearled gunpowder, which made it possible to predict burn rates and slow them down for cannons, allowing for bigger and more potent cannons. Anecdotally, there is documentation of an Ottoman diplomat pleading to a Chinese one that "the Europeans never learn to make gunpowder"
They also claim to have invented chariots, despite using the Sanskrit word for chariot.
I don't see how "war carriage" or "horse carriage" is the Sanskrit word for chariot.
I wouldn't be looking for 'game changers' - that's a marketing phrase with no firm meaning and very low applicability to reality. All invention is just iterating on existing ideas.
We didn't see much cutting-edge tech coming out of China while they were recovering from the collapse of the imperial system and the colonial period, but now that they have more resources to throw at new tech, we'll see new tech.
They haven’t really invented anything big since gun powder.
And even gun powder, they didn’t know how to fully apply all of its potential.
For some period of time they did.
It's just that when all the civilized world in some relative measurement of it is one big centralized bureaucratic state, degeneracy starts.
Why make cannons if you don't have a problem to be solved with those? Why even think about something like cannons?
Look at guerillas and combatants using FPV drones and the ways they do it, do you see developed nation states embracing that revolution? No, they still go for big expensive modern artillery, jets, big drones etc. It will be fun to watch the dynamics of power in coming decades, since stagnant rich militaries are very resistant to change and reform.
You can also use rifles for protection against animals and hunting. Or you trade / sell them to nations which do have conflict and military need.
Rifles were and are a mass product. Cannons even 100 years ago were not.