@farmerman,
Today, we don't know the formula for Greek Fire. We know napalm, which is similar volatile compound, but this is simply diesel and a gelling agent.
Greek Fire on the other hand, seems to have been strongly pyrophoric (ignites on air) and was supposed to even burn strongly on the surface of water.
It isn't "just volcanic ash" there's a recipe. Even analyzing the chemicals in it, we don't necessarily know the proportions.
In ancient China there was a type of tin bronze (read up on the Sword of Goujian) that was around since 7th century BC. The sword was found sitting underwater. The sword was watertight but more importantly, was able to be drawn, and the blade had no corrosion or even patina and was still sharp. They had it chemically analyzed pretty sure there aren't smiths around which could make a perfect replica which would last as long. Hell, we call it stainless steel, but if we put a time capsule below ground level, immersion in water for long enough periods rust it anyway. We can't even make proper time capsule because we are so hung up on iron that we don't try proper alloys and corrosion-test them.
In India, the legend of Brahmastra appears to be a sort of ancient nuke (shines like a second sun, poisons food and water, causes hair and nail loss, and around the time of a seven year famine, where they also mention a reduction in lifespan). Got it to work without electricity and without explosive devices (they mention a "sutra" or probably vibrations more like). How do I know that it worked? Because the area that is nearby this, it is illegal to stay overnight. Because several areas across the globe have weirdly desertified areas (sea of glass is the word, where some strange intense heat fused the aand or dirt together). Such sea of glass was found on the first nuclear test site.
http://ancientnuclearwar.com/
And guess what? In India near Rajasthan there is not only fused minerals but there a town that has had no permanent residents for centuries. People who moved near there got sick, so they quarantined the place against overnight stay. Some people call it haunted.
What I want to impress on you guys is that evolution, like evolution of technology, can work in two directions. My grandpa noted that some plastic screws weren't as good as the old ones, they were cheap and broke easily. Today's Cracker Jack has gone from die cast toys, to plastic toys, to paper tattoos and such, to paper online links to websites for games.
Likewise , older lawnmowers cut without using power. Yes, they jam and aren't as powerful, but they also don't require oil. Electric mowers don't sputter to start and don't make the air smell like oil or the grass into a gloppy mess, but you have to drag a huge freaking cord around you and not trip on it or cut it.
We suck, okay? Most of our tech relies on too much fossil fuel, electricity, or internet, and many of the things we knew how to do without all that (musical instruments, for example) are being phased out by electronic ones. Older people understood how to cope during a power outage. Most of us become frantic when only our cellphones are dead.
Evolution only works if we don't get complacent and start thinking we are more advanced than anyone who has ever been. Roman had more of these lost technologies than anyone and our attempts to reproduce most of their stuff wound up with second-rate versions. Cement and concrete that doesn't last. They didn't "work with the materials at hand", they had a culture that doesn't prize conning people into buying cheap solutions but thinks about posterity; they worked with the formula until it was built to last.
And you know how I talked about India and Rome? They did all this without our electric technology and without using oil. We were supposed to invent hoverboards by 2015. In 2015, we couldn't keep people from eating Tide pods. Now six years later, I strongly suspect we as humans will talk ourselves in to fascist regimes. I do not think we will have our technology in 20 years, we're too busy being woke to remember the core basis of science, and letting mad scientists basically tell us voodoo nonsense that we've known for centuries isn't the right approach. You can't fight diseases the way we have the past year. You get pneumonia and die. I've that since I was six, when I was stuck in a hospital and an older lady told me bad air would give me "jamonia." I learned it again when my aunt almost died and wad put on a respirator after indoor air pollution and masks. And pneumonia isn't the only risk. The Jews shut themselves off in a walled city and developed skin conditions like leprosy. We are likely to be scratching in the dirt in twenty years because we are too fixated on climate change .
Yes, evolution is a dangerous idea. Evolution is dangerous to those without humility, who see ths past as backwards and themselves as God. Everything they have with be taken away.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=9PRSchbUMW4
Evolution is the idea that we understand our past, and remember that God brought us here. That we remember things like the Dark Ages have happened and brought civilizations to their knees. That we don't blow ourselves up, that we don't let ourselves become complacent idiots either, and we actually understand that the way forward is through moral science and discipline. In order to evolve to the next step, we must not let random people dictate our lives. Because this is what happened the last time we did that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_killings_under_communist_regimes
Evolution is moving forward. Contrary to the "conflict theory" which believes religion and science are incompatible, religion (whether Greek or Roman or Egyptian or Christian) has usually helped science move in the right path. Science under atheism? Mostly wasteful experiments like this one
https://thefederalist.com/2021/08/05/fauci-spent-nearly-half-a-million-in-taxpayer-dollars-on-abusive-experiments-on-dogs/
or political nonsense meant to push dogma.
Science came about as a means to explain the created world. Science without religion is like a boat without a compass. Rather than leading us to evolution, it makes us sad lazy potatoes that worry about coming down with a disease that might kill us. What happened to living? Remember when people would risk their lives for causes? Now most of us are probably dying of complications from a ramen and chocolate diet. Evolution means moving forward. It is dangerous to the secret world powers who want us to move backwards. To dwell of other accomplishments, and not ask, "Why ISN'T our cement/concrete good enough to last 2000 years? Why ISN'T our metal something we can show to future generations? Why are we so busy looking at flashing boxes all day that we've forgot we have family and friends?" When we are not satisfied wuth how things are, we invent, we build, we create. We study, we learn, we grow.
I have no real job, but what I do have is a ton of creative hobbies. I write, I program games, I do art, I study something nearly every day. What about you guys? You are convinced that previous societies have nothing to offer while your own society slouches toward Jerusalem.
And you likely don't know thst the phrases "slouches toward Jerusalem" is from a Yeats poem. You probably on the surface have a uni degree but it's useless. By third grade many students today still can't read.
