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Insert Funny Line from Trainspotting
Dec. 8th, 2008 09:53 pmDoes anyone reading this still play any of the Sid Maier Civilization games, or even just have them on their computer?
I posted earlier today about my science & technology course. The first lecture back in January, I'm going to be talking about the industrial revolution and the Needham Question. Crudely put, the Needham Question asks "why didn't the industrial revolution happen in China?" Slightly less crudely put, the Needham Question asks, "why did an industrial revolution happen in England?" Less crudely put than that, the question involves me yammering on about coal deposits and opium and counterfactuals for three hours or so. (There is a twenty minute break.)
So I thought I'd use Civilization as a way of getting in to the question. Not just because you can play out alternate histories where the Sioux get the bomb and the Mongols discover the secret of cheeseburgers, but because I figure I can use the Civ tech tree as a metaphor for technological development, contingency, and determinism. What I'd like to have is a couple of screen shots from Civilization that I can use for slides. I especially want one of the discovery screens that says "Chinese Wise Men Discover the Secret of Industrialization" or however it's worded. But I could also use a handful of images of, say, ironclads putting the hurt on phalanxes, or really anything from the game. I've Googled around and found various screen shot collections but none of the discovery screen for some reason. (Did they drop it from the later versions? I thought I remembered it from Civ 3 but maybe my memory is playing tricks on me.)
If you're wondering why I don't just dig up a copy, reinstall the damn thing, and get the screen shots myself--well, that's a little like asking a former junkie to throw together a heroin kit for old times sake. Anyway, I can certainly get by without the screen shots, or with ones I pull together from the web. But if you were looking for an excuse to kill 36 hours over the holidays...
I posted earlier today about my science & technology course. The first lecture back in January, I'm going to be talking about the industrial revolution and the Needham Question. Crudely put, the Needham Question asks "why didn't the industrial revolution happen in China?" Slightly less crudely put, the Needham Question asks, "why did an industrial revolution happen in England?" Less crudely put than that, the question involves me yammering on about coal deposits and opium and counterfactuals for three hours or so. (There is a twenty minute break.)
So I thought I'd use Civilization as a way of getting in to the question. Not just because you can play out alternate histories where the Sioux get the bomb and the Mongols discover the secret of cheeseburgers, but because I figure I can use the Civ tech tree as a metaphor for technological development, contingency, and determinism. What I'd like to have is a couple of screen shots from Civilization that I can use for slides. I especially want one of the discovery screens that says "Chinese Wise Men Discover the Secret of Industrialization" or however it's worded. But I could also use a handful of images of, say, ironclads putting the hurt on phalanxes, or really anything from the game. I've Googled around and found various screen shot collections but none of the discovery screen for some reason. (Did they drop it from the later versions? I thought I remembered it from Civ 3 but maybe my memory is playing tricks on me.)
If you're wondering why I don't just dig up a copy, reinstall the damn thing, and get the screen shots myself--well, that's a little like asking a former junkie to throw together a heroin kit for old times sake. Anyway, I can certainly get by without the screen shots, or with ones I pull together from the web. But if you were looking for an excuse to kill 36 hours over the holidays...
