Personally, I believe the main problem is that the Qin and Han dynasties led China into a local optimum. And they stuck in there for a thousand years, they made minor fixes but never tried to replace the entire system.
We may even be making the very same mistake today.
Let’s suppose, in the future, Earth were able to develop a utopian government, where everyone have complete freedom and zero life pressure, allowing everyone to freely express their creativity. Would those future people think we wasted our best brains in the number games of Wall Street, just as we think ancient Chinese wasted their best brains in the word games of imperial exam?
Personally, I believe the main problem is that the Qin and Han dynasties led China into a local optimum. And they stuck in there for a thousand years, they made minor fixes but never tried to replace the entire system.
We may even be making the very same mistake today.
Let’s suppose, in the future, Earth were able to develop a utopian government, where everyone have complete freedom and zero life pressure, allowing everyone to freely express their creativity. Would those future people think we wasted our best brains in the number games of Wall Street, just as we think ancient Chinese wasted their best brains in the word games of imperial exam?