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What Makes Us Humans?

Decent Essays

Thought is what makes us humans. Our rationalism, our ability to make decisions based on our own reason and knowledge, is what makes humans human and not animals. Now a day we all have access to the largest library, the largest source of knowledge the world has ever known: the internet. Over 2,000 years ago we had the Library of Alexandria, a place where intellectuals would gather to discuss ideas and conduct research from over half a million books, a place where knowledge could grow. In 332 BC Alexander the Great founded a city which he hoped would embody his dreams on the mediterranean coast of Egypt. He thought on this for a bit and then decided that no better name could be given to such a great city than that of his own and …show more content…

Hero was a geometer and inventor whose writings preserved a knowledge of the mathematics and engineering of Babylonia, Egypt, and the Greco-Roman World. More than just this though, he invented the first steam engine. The device consisted of a sphere mounted on a boiler by an axial shaft with two canted nozzles that produce a rotary motion as steam escapes. This was, however, very inefficient and only used to power toys and entertain visitors, so this design would generally be ignored and would not provide a basis for modern steam engines (Still pretty cool though).

Hero 's Aeolipile (The First Steam Engine) Even after the burning of much of the library, men continued to search far and wide for any scroll of consequence. Indeed it was after the library was largely burned that it would reach its peak of around 700,000 books. Laws were even put in place to preserve and expand the Great Library 's collection. One such law banned books from leaving the city. Another had any new ship into the city inspected to search for any new books to expand the library. To keep track of this massive collection, the city 's librarians came up with the World 's first library catalog (Perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly). The books were sorted by, amongst other things, author, title, and genre. Intellectuals from all over the known world would come and read this books, and even sometimes make their own notes

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