What Does It Mean to Be Truly Great?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the concept of greatness, exploring various interpretations and examples of what it means to be truly great. Participants delve into both abstract notions of greatness and specific instances, including historical achievements and cultural references.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants question whether greatness is defined by conquest or personal happiness.
  • There is a suggestion that greatness can be subjective and may vary based on individual experiences.
  • One participant mentions the greatness of ancient construction techniques, citing the mystery surrounding how large stones were moved and positioned in historical sites.
  • Another participant challenges the idea of ancient aliens as an explanation for these constructions, asserting that the knowledge of how they were built is lost.
  • Some express skepticism about the methods proposed for moving heavy stones, suggesting that they require a significant amount of faith in those theories.
  • There are references to specific historical sites, such as the Giza Pyramids and Machu Picchu, as examples of great achievements.
  • Participants discuss the reliability of various explanations and the difficulty of proving certain historical claims.
  • One participant humorously mentions the greatness of a biography about J. Robert Oppenheimer, while another compliments a fellow participant.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of views on what constitutes greatness, with no clear consensus on definitions or examples. The discussion includes both agreement on the subjective nature of greatness and disagreement on specific historical interpretations and methods of construction.

Contextual Notes

Some claims about ancient construction methods remain unresolved, with participants expressing differing opinions on the feasibility of various theories. The discussion also touches on the ambiguity of historical records and the challenges of verifying claims about the past.

Vivan Vatsa
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Well searching for many days, I can't understand that what really people think of being great.
Does it means that you are the conqueror of the world or you are the happiest man on earth.
So what is your opinion on being great??
 
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Vivan Vatsa said:
Well searching for many days, I can't understand that what really people think of being great.
Does it means that you are the conqueror of the world or you are the happiest man on earth.
So what is your opinion on being great??
"I know it when I see it." -- Lewis Powell.
 
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Vivan Vatsa said:
So what is your opinion on being great??
I enjoy it and highly recommend others try it.
 
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russ_watters said:
I enjoy it and highly recommend others try it.
Russ took the words right out of my mouth!
 
Evo said:
Russ took the words right out of my mouth!
I know that Meat Loaf is big, but is he great?
 
fresh_42 said:
I know that Meat Loaf is big, but is he great?
I've never had a truly great meat loaf.
 
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Evo said:
I've never had a truly great meat loaf.
You should consider a visit to Germany.

hackbraten.jpg
 
fresh_42 said:
You should consider a visit to Germany.

[PLAIN]http://www.krisenkueche.de/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/hackbraten.jpg[/QUOTE]
oh, now THAT looks GREAT!
 
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Vivan Vatsa said:
So what is your opinion on being great??
It's great to be great, of course, of course...
 
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  • #10
Grating your fingernails on a blackboard is GREAT for irritating people.
 
  • #11
I think ants are GREAT or really social insects in general!
 
  • #12
Vivan Vatsa said:
So what is your opinion on being great??
What is truly great is the mystery of how very heavy stones, some a hundred and two hundred tons, were quarried, transported, very accurately carved and very precisely positioned so many millennia ago that there are neither written nor oral records about them.

Sacsayhuaman_wall1.jpg

These sites include Sacsayhuaman, Cuzco, Peru; Ollantaytambo, Peru; Machu Picchu, Peru; the Giza Pyramids, Egypt; Tiahuanaco, Bolivia; Nan Madol, Pohnpei, Micronesia; Stonehenge, England; and Easter Island.

These stones were clearly not carved by hand with bronze (or even steel) chisels. Nor were they moved with rope. Some try to say these are evidence of ancient aliens, but that's no different than throwing your arms up in despair.

I'm fairly certain these were constructed with ancient technology and knowledge that was lost in the flood. Several structures, especially the temple at Ollantaytambo and a pyramid north of Giza, are clearly incomplete. The builders got caught in the flood.

The mystery of how they did it is great.
 
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  • #13
KenJackson said:
What is truly great is the mystery of how very heavy stones, some a hundred and two hundred tons, were quarried, transported, very accurately carved and very precisely positioned so many millennia ago that there are neither written nor oral records about them.

Sacsayhuaman_wall1.jpg

These sites include Sacsayhuaman, Cuzco, Peru; Ollantaytambo, Peru; Machu Picchu, Peru; the Giza Pyramids, Egypt; Tiahuanaco, Bolivia; Nan Madol, Pohnpei, Micronesia; Stonehenge, England; and Easter Island.

These stones were clearly not carved by hand with bronze (or even steel) chisels. Nor were they moved with rope. Some try to say these are evidence of ancient aliens, but that's no different than throwing your arms up in despair.

I'm fairly certain these were constructed with ancient technology and knowledge that was lost in the flood. Several structures, especially the temple at Ollantaytambo and a pyramid north of Giza, are clearly incomplete. The builders got caught in the flood.

The mystery of how they did it is great.

It's actually very well known how many of the examples you give were done.
 
  • #14
KenJackson said:
The builders got caught in the flood.
What flood?
 
  • #15
phinds said:
What flood?

If it's the flood I'm thinking of, this thread won't last long.
 
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  • #16
micromass said:
If it's the flood I'm thinking of, this thread won't last long.
According to which reference frame?
 
  • #17
micromass said:
It's actually very well known how many of the examples you give were done.
It's easy to give an answer that can't be verified or refuted, as many have done. But just look at that picture I posted from Sacsayhuaman. Look at the delicate curves in blocks weighing 100 tons or more that exactly match the delicate adjoining curves. It wasn't jostled into it's exact position with ropes without damaging the other rocks.

The thread is about greatness and this is a GREAT mystery.
 
  • #18
micromass said:
It's actually very well known how many of the examples you give were done.
Oh, grief. I just started looking at the hour-long video you posted. I fear there may be some confusion.

By calling it a "mystery", I'm not implying that ancient humans didn't actually do it. And I've already gently rejected the ancient alien theory that the video also rejects. I'm merely stating that the knowledge needed to do it is now lost. We don't know how it was done. So it's a mystery. (And a GREAT one at that.)
 
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  • #19
micromass said:
If it's the flood I'm thinking of, this thread won't last long.
Yeah, me too.
 
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  • #20
KenJackson said:
Oh, grief. I just started looking at the hour-long video you posted. I fear there may be some confusion.

By calling it a "mystery", I'm not implying that ancient humans didn't actually do it. And I've already gently rejected the ancient alien theory that the video also rejects. I'm merely stating that the knowledge needed to do it is now lost. We don't know how it was done. So it's a mystery. (And a GREAT one at that.)

Nono, that's not why I posted the video. Yes, the video refutes the ancient alien theory, but it also goes into quite so detail as to how the constructions were performed.
 
  • #21
micromass said:
Nono, that's not why I posted the video. Yes, the video refutes the ancient alien theory, but it also goes into quite so detail as to how the constructions were performed.
That video has some fascinating stuff in it. Especially the central shaft for building the pyramids. But he's kind of glibly dismissive. It was kind of funny that he dismissed some author for saying but not proving something when that's what he did too. In fact you just can't prove a lot of things. Even respected archeologists sometimes disagree on dates by millennia.

If you think they could shape those blocks so they match exactly with stone tools and then position them with a bunch of Roman hoists, you have an awful lot of faith. I guess the little holes would have to be on the hidden edges like his preposterous suggestion for Baalbek. But that doesn't explain how you would get the rope out. It's just a heuristic without a plan.

BTW, Gornaya Shoria in Siberia might have some blocks as heavy as 4000 tons. (I say "might" because some are trying to say these nice rectangular blocks in a wall high in the mountains are natural.) FOUR THOUSAND tons! That would take 800 Roman hoists on one block, with perfect weight distribution. It would take too much faith to believe that.

It's still a GREAT mystery.
 
  • #22
KenJackson said:
If you think they could shape those blocks so they match exactly with stone tools and then position them with a bunch of Roman hoists, you have an awful lot of faith.

It is completely plausable. And every alternative is completely ridiculous.

Why don't you tell us how you think they did it?
 
  • #23
The book "American Prometheus, the triumph and tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer" is a "great" biography! :thumbup:
 
  • #24
oldmen you are great.
 
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  • #25
micromass said:
And every alternative is completely ridiculous.

Why don't you tell us how you think they did it?

That is EXACTLY the point! Very good. Except that the method you like is ridiculous too. It's a great mystery.

BTW, in the video your guy threaded a rope through a channel in the top of one block to lift it. I know granite and limestone have unimaginably immense compression strength, but does it have enough tensile strength for that little sliver at the top to support a hundred tons? I notice he didn't prove it.

And regardless of how the rope was rigged, the minimum breaking strength of a 2" steel cable is about 160 tons. Safety limits are well below that, so I suspect they had something much stronger than steel cable to lift these hundreds of tons.

There's no disgrace in confessing we don't know the answer to a great mystery.
 
  • #26
@KenJackson, I see you are avoiding my question about what flood you are talking about. You brought it up, now explain it.
 
  • #27
KenJackson said:
And regardless of how the rope was rigged, the minimum breaking strength of a 2" steel cable is about 160 tons. Safety limits are well below that, so I suspect they had something much stronger than steel cable to lift these hundreds of tons.

Or they could use multiple ropes.

I agree there are many unexplained things of the past, but you are willfully ignoring perfectly good explanations for some reason you're not willing to divulge.
 
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  • #28
phinds said:
@KenJackson, I see you are avoiding my question about what flood you are talking about. You brought it up, now explain it.
I avoided it because you implied it would get the thread banned. Is that your goal? Are you one who likes to provoke fights to get others kicked out?

There's unlimited evidence of a world-wide flood both on the physical Earth and in ancient literature. And I seem to recall more than one historian lamenting that history starts at 5000 BC (oops) 3000 BC. What a coincidence. But never mind. The great mystery doesn't depend on that.
 
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  • #29
KenJackson said:
I avoided it because you implied it would get the thread banned. Is that your goal? Are you one who likes to provoke fights to get others kicked out?

There's unlimited evidence of a world-wide flood both on the physical Earth and in ancient literature. And I seem to recall more than one historian lamenting that history starts at 5000 BC. What a coincidence. But never mind. The great mystery doesn't depend on that.

Provide some evidence then. Let's start with some geological evidence.
 
  • #30
KenJackson said:
I avoided it because you implied it would get the thread banned. Is that your goal? Are you one who likes to provoke fights to get others kicked out?
No, my goal is not to get you kicked out, it is to support the forums rules of providing citations for claims you make, as micromass just requested. The point is, you should not make claims you can't support. If you can support your claim, then I will have learned something new.
 
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