Making Culture Have a Better Purpose

          In my post last week when I said “although not all of their cultures succeeded in their purpose,” I mean that one society may have come up with an invention that we have made better today. The invention could be made better because it is more readily accessible and usable to more people around the world.

           The Ancient Greeks came up with tons of inventions that we use better today. For one, they created the Olympic Games, but they were only played on the plains of Olympia. Today, the Olympics are played all over the world in a different country every four years. Don’t you think this is a great way to explore another society’s culture, or even an entire world’s culture? If you have ever been to an Olympic event please comment below to share your cultural experience.

          Another invention of the Greeks was the thermometer. Actually, Galileo really made the thermometer more of what we use it for today, a scientific measuring device. However, there are not many conventional thermometers around today because of the toxicity of mercury. Most thermometers are digital. Do you think they are as accurate as the mercury thermometers? I know I don’t think they are as accurate.

          Finally, the last Greek invention I am going to talk about is the concept of money. Did you know that money is considered to be one of the greatest discoveries of mankind? Back then the Greeks used metal pieces, or coins, for their money. Now, today there are still coins, but we have dollars, which are cheaper to produce, and plastic! I personally rarely carry any cash on me because I would rather just carry one plastic piece of card which contains all of my cash on it.  Plus it has built in security so that if someone else tries to use it I can deny them access. But, back in the times of Ancient Greece if someone took your money you were out of luck. Do you think our society moving to a more intangible concept of money is good thing? Do you ever wonder what will happen if your bank one day closes and takes all of your money with it? If you have any experiences with this issue please comment.

          Culture during the time of Ancient Greece may have achieved its purpose, but today we have made the purpose of Ancient Greek culture more efficient and some may argue more simplistic to use and understand on a more global scope.

Above information on Greek inventions was taken from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/greek-inventions.html.