Loss of Knowledge

The ancients’ scientific and technological marvels (e.g., malleable glass, iron chariots, wire communication) are reduced to legends or incomprehensible relics, with the surviving population unable to recreate them.

The text mentions that the foundations of ancient buildings are now buried deep and inaccessible, and that many species of dogs are extinct, indicating a loss of both physical and cultural knowledge.

The narrator laments the destruction of records and the loss of technical arts, as memories died out within two generations.

Literacy and learning are deliberately restricted to the noble class, who rarely use them; printing is not employed because no one wants books, and ancient wisdom is preserved only in a few manuscripts.

Felix secretly studies decaying ancient texts, reconstructing knowledge that was once common, while society despises learning.