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@hypolite Oh, I like this explanation. It's a bit like how its possible to solve many applied mathematical problems with brute force, an expensive and inexact numerical solution, but if you know calculus you can create an exact symbolic solution, a nice formula instead of an iterative algorithm.

David Brin suggested in his Uplift books that in an advanced and ancient galactic civilization, computers would be far too powerful, everything would have already been invented and people would be relying on ancient libraries instead of researching anything. This would make them fall prey to using numerical solutions to everything, which could give an advantage to a scrappy upstart civilization with a culture that insisted on understanding what you're doing, and using calculus.

It seemed unrealistic to me, but it looks like we're already seeing that decline before we even reached the stars.

@futurebird @dalias