[andallas]

Thank you, if people kept agreeing with him I was about to have an aneurysm. I have a rental property in upstate NY that was built in 1895 and is at least a century ahead of a mud hut. I'd argue several centuries, but I guess it depends on which civilization you are comparing it to.

[logfromblammo]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_structure

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cob_(material)#Modern_cob_buil...

http://www.sotaconstruction.com/project_details.asp?id=42

Even mud hut technology has advanced well beyond huts. The "greenest building in Pennsylvania" is a glorified mud hut with underfloor heating. It contains more than just one century of advancements over the most basic earthen construction.

And perhaps you haven't seen the sort of houses that people lived in, even as late as the 1930s, in some parts of the country. Let's just say there is a good reason why pre-manufactured homes are popular in certain places. Upstate New York may not exactly be a representative sample for the housing conditions in 1915.

[marssaxman]

The idea that technology has some linear progression is an illusion. I stayed in a "mud hut" several years ago during a trip to Morocco which had running water, flush toilets, and electricity. It was built of mud not because the builders lacked access to "better" technology, but because big mud bricks were a simple, practical, and economical building technology well suited to the desert environment.

[kang]

I live in India and my parents lived in mud homes. My grandparents just upgraded 5 years ago. And by no means am I poor.