[gsf_emergency_2]

Had Archimedes lived to teach the Romans his calculus we might have reached Mars by 500 AD

https://youtu.be/h0gPomI3h8o

that's not from hesitation. And one can only call the Syracuse invasion an inefficiency in hindsight.

The immediate opportunity of a ~million Roman lives compared to other hypothetical opportunities

(One might guess that opportunities of the win-win type weren't covered by Munger's model)

[tyre]

It's highly unlikely that the Romans could have had the industrial revolution[0], so I'm doubtful that calculus alone would have gotten them to Mars.

[0]: https://acoup.blog/2022/08/26/collections-why-no-roman-indus...

[gsf_emergency_2]

A different take:

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-642-18904-3

(Maybe the Greeks' themselves could have done it, they already had a rudimentary steam engine )

[1970-01-01]

Yes, the scientific method pre-dates the industrial revolution for a reason. You simply can't get cracking on rocket science without foundational science.[-3]

[-3]: https://en.uncyclopedia.co/wiki/AIDS_(Space_Program)#AIDS_Sp...