For lack of a wheel...

What if the wheel had never been invented? How far could technology have advanced without it? What can be said descriptively about how society would have been affected by the lack?
 
What if the wheel had never been invented? How far could technology have advanced without it? What can be said descriptively about how society would have been affected by the lack?

Technology wouldn't have gone much of anywhere for the most part were it not for those inventive little Arabs calling themselves the 'Sumerians'. :D
 

mowque

Banned
Not invented at all? I mean the Incas and Aztecs knew about it just didn't really use it much.
 
How could you possibly avoid it? The basic principles can be seem with cut down trees; that is, round things roll. It would only be a matter of time before somebody makes that connection.
Which leaves delaying the invention. I dunno, maybe some kind of sleigh/sledge thing? I believe dragging cart-like structures on the ground was fairly universal, though I could be wrong, and I suppose some kind of skid (?) would improve transportation somehow.

Technology wouldn't have gone much of anywhere for the most part were it not for those inventive little Arabs calling themselves the 'Sumerians'. :D

[Insert overused meme pertaining to ignorant statements here. ]
 

Shackel

Banned
Nyt tw mntn that ths pwr fwls cwlnt hav any "whyyls" in thr linkuistiks

(Translation: Not to mention that these poor fools couldn't have any "wheels" in their linguistics.)
 
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There's only one thing that can stand in the way of something this simple. Religion. Just make it so the first wheel rolls over someone's big toe and then it's relegated to witchcraft and evil magic. Now clearly, this can't be anything universal, not immediately, but over time, given the right circumstances, everyone will come to regard the wheel as taboo.
 
There's only one thing that can stand in the way of something this simple. Religion. Just make it so the first wheel rolls over someone's big toe and then it's relegated to witchcraft and evil magic. Now clearly, this can't be anything universal, not immediately, but over time, given the right circumstances, everyone will come to regard the wheel as taboo.

Until someone who worships a different God, is somewhat pragmatic about religion or just dosen't care where he has to go in his quest for power creates wheeled carts to have a military advantage.

Another thought: Having the Potter's Wheel means that wheeled carts are pretty much inevitable. Stopping the potters wheel as well is probably not going to work out well.
 

Shackel

Banned
There's only one thing that can stand in the way of something this simple. Religion. Just make it so the first wheel rolls over someone's big toe and then it's relegated to witchcraft and evil magic. Now clearly, this can't be anything universal, not immediately, but over time, given the right circumstances, everyone will come to regard the wheel as taboo.

That didn't make any sense.

At all.

I'm guessing you're an atheist.
 
As I understand it, the only reason the Mesoamericans didn't use the wheel much despite understanding the principle is that they didn't have an appropriate beast of burden to pull it. So if donkeys, cattle and horses are never domesticated... Civilization is obviously still possible, but its growth will be drastically stunted. Less food (both meat and plant crops), less trade, slower communications and different military history.
 
..... no. And..... no.

Until someone who worships a different God, is somewhat pragmatic about religion or just dosen't care where he has to go in his quest for power creates wheeled carts to have a military advantage.

Another thought: Having the Potter's Wheel means that wheeled carts are pretty much inevitable. Stopping the potters wheel as well is probably not going to work out well.

That didn't make any sense.

At all.

I'm guessing you're an atheist.
Wow folks. It's not like I was being that serious about it. My comment was totally intended to be funny, not to advocate a religious perspective. (I'm Jewish, by the way) Really, there's no non-ASB way to avoid making the wheel.
 

Shackel

Banned
Wow folks. It's not like I was being that serious about it. My comment was totally intended to be funny, not to advocate a religious perspective. (I'm Jewish, by the way) Really, there's no non-ASB way to avoid making the wheel.

Sorry, hard to tell sarcasm from idiocy these days on the internet.
 

Cook

Banned
Really, there's no non-ASB way to avoid making the wheel.

The question was how far could technology have advanced without it.

The Pre-Columbian Americans didn’t use it because they lacked anything bigger than a Lama to harness it to and had reached a level of technology close to the Bronze Age. (Yes I know they didn’t have Bronze.)

Maybe if Mr Columbus hadn’t opened a travel route between the old and new world the native Americans would have continued to progress and wouldn’t have been hindered buy the absence of the wheel.

The tribes of southern Africa were Iron Age level and had complex kingdoms but also lacked it so maybe Bronze Age or early Iron Age is as far as is likely.
 

Riain

Banned
I think the Americans were hampered by not using the wheel, think about how handy wheelbarrows, handcarts and moving trolleys are.
 
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