I agree with some of what you say about what people do, but entirely disagree with you with why people do those things.
> As for choosing to not make structure to last...
I agree with you that we are often short-sighted and have non-sustainable practices. But the reason for making bad products is not that we can't - we absolutely can - its just that we are greedy. Its like saying that because we haven't gone to the Moon in 40 years, we have forgotten and can't do it anymore. No, if someone wanted to do it and was willing to spend a few billion, they could absolutely start from scratch, with no help from NASA or old designs and still figure out how to go to the Moon in a few years. Its not hard, just something nobody wants to do.
> If we are continually improving our construction techniques then explain why there are various research groups trying to work out...
I understand that compared to other ancient civilizations the Pyramids are surprising and its not completely known what sort of system allowed for their construction. But why historians are interested to learn this is not because they want to use it to become rich or construct pyramids ourselves. Historians are interested just because historians are interested in what people from long ago used to do. Historians also try to learn how many hours people worked a day, what the nature of marriage was, what sort of food people ate etc. Figuring out the pyramids is just one question out of many.
> Is it because those techniques are superior to those we use today?
No, they weren't. They just used tens of thousands of slaves to move big rocks. A big modern crane can do the same without killing off thousands of people.
> ... we don't know how it was done... it becomes very difficult to duplicate.
Us not knowing how they did it means nothing about how we can do it. We can just do it differently and much more easily. Pyramids are one of the most stable structures you can build. We literally just need a big kiln to make huge bricks and a big crane to place those bricks in the right spots. Of course, if we were limited to 50,000 slaves and no modern equipment, we might fail because we have indeed forgotten "techniques" of moving stones at the cost of many lives, but superior?
> As for choosing to not make structure to last...
I agree with you that we are often short-sighted and have non-sustainable practices. But the reason for making bad products is not that we can't - we absolutely can - its just that we are greedy. Its like saying that because we haven't gone to the Moon in 40 years, we have forgotten and can't do it anymore. No, if someone wanted to do it and was willing to spend a few billion, they could absolutely start from scratch, with no help from NASA or old designs and still figure out how to go to the Moon in a few years. Its not hard, just something nobody wants to do.
> If we are continually improving our construction techniques then explain why there are various research groups trying to work out...
I understand that compared to other ancient civilizations the Pyramids are surprising and its not completely known what sort of system allowed for their construction. But why historians are interested to learn this is not because they want to use it to become rich or construct pyramids ourselves. Historians are interested just because historians are interested in what people from long ago used to do. Historians also try to learn how many hours people worked a day, what the nature of marriage was, what sort of food people ate etc. Figuring out the pyramids is just one question out of many.
> Is it because those techniques are superior to those we use today?
No, they weren't. They just used tens of thousands of slaves to move big rocks. A big modern crane can do the same without killing off thousands of people.
> ... we don't know how it was done... it becomes very difficult to duplicate.
Us not knowing how they did it means nothing about how we can do it. We can just do it differently and much more easily. Pyramids are one of the most stable structures you can build. We literally just need a big kiln to make huge bricks and a big crane to place those bricks in the right spots. Of course, if we were limited to 50,000 slaves and no modern equipment, we might fail because we have indeed forgotten "techniques" of moving stones at the cost of many lives, but superior?