I tend to keep an open mind and a firm belief that the absence of evidences is not a negative proof... yet I fnd all such anomalous data to eb fascinating, if only for speculatory discussions.

I am reminded here, of two things. First, the first invention of the bow in Africa that died off, only to be reinvented elsewhere and then catch on... thousands of years later.
I'm also reminded of the fact that in 0 AD, Romans had *working* steam engine prototype toys, but it too never caught on.

The latter is interesting, considering how *few* records of such things exist as it was never mainstream. Couldn't the same be true for using crystal lens' for magnification? Such things could, just as the steam engine, been dismissed as toys and relatively unimportant?


Laptops now, I don't think I even need to go there lol. Telescopes do seem potentially possible.


On a side note, I found a fascinating topic of idscussion about technology and time travel in a book I read recently. It raised a very valid point... Unlike when rifles and horses were introduced and adopted by near stone age civilizations in North America, if you were to introduce a *smart* phone to Charles Babbage (inventor of the first computer), what would he be able to make of it? Especially after the battery died? I agree with the author, it's more likely that the result would be witch trials & burnings than any kind of technological shift ;0
The device itself would quickly be lost in antiquity... not memorialized in numerous artistic renditions.