Word clouds are one of those inventions that have low utility when trivially implemented but potentially very powerful if solved in a deep way.
I don’t know if this is true but I read some Bronze Age culture developed wheels for toys but not for use. Can’t recall which one.
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not much use for wheels when all your roads are stairs
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Hero of Alexandria's steam engine was about 17 centuries early but it did make some cool automatons.
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I believe you are thinking of the pre-Columbian mesoamericans, i.e. the Aztecs, Incas and Mayans. This quora discussions seems to offer a pretty good explanation. quora.com/Why-did-the-Ma. Basic idea is that "wheel" by itself is pretty useless: you need wheels + roads.
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I doubt the wheel was the critical insight, but the bearing, the "wheel within a wheel."





