A thread through the archive
Essays tagged “Roman Empire”. Follow an idea across the archive.
Scott Alexander reviews Rodney Stark's 'The Rise of Christianity', which examines factors contributing to Christianity's growth from a small cult to a dominant religion in the Roman Empire.
Scott Alexander analyzes survey results on how often people think about the Roman Empire, finding little gender difference but a significant overall cultural impact.
This review examines Joseph Tainter's theory of societal collapse due to diminishing returns on complexity, critiquing aspects of the model and attempting to apply it to modern contexts.
The review examines Peter Brown's book on the transformation of Western Europe and North Africa from pagan to Christian society (350-550 AD), focusing on wealth in churches and societal changes.
Scott Alexander summarizes and responds to comments on his Dark Ages post, addressing debates about the timeline, historical continuity, and implications of the concept.
Scott Alexander argues that the Dark Ages in Western Europe (500-1000 AD) did occur, presenting evidence of economic, demographic, and intellectual decline during this period.
Scott presents a thought experiment about using perfect knowledge and intellect to take over ancient Rome as an upper bound for understanding AI takeover scenarios.