[Kalimac]

I think one thing to consider with this question also is the average lifespan of Middle-Earth's inhabitants. Mhoram has a good point - how come ME people are content to be riding horses when after a similar number of years the inhabitants of this Earth are trying to get into Space Tourism? It doesn't seem to make a lot of sense, but consider that for ordinary human beings, 6,500 years represents a LOT of generations and thus a lot of new people who would become uncomfortable or bored with the technologies of their elders and try to think of new ideas, in the process stirring up conflict between old and new which would possibly add even more new thoughts into the creative ferment (sorry, hope that made some sort of sense). Whereas for the Elves, who as a race are one of the prime movers and shakers of Middle Earth, 6,500 years means that the Elves born that long ago are now maybe feeling a touch middle-aged. And even for the mortal races, the ones who are the most kingly and powerful are very, very long-lived. Elros, for example, chose to be mortal but that didn't stop him from living 500 years - for a race like that, 6,500 years would be our equivalent of the timespan stretching from the birth of Christ to, maybe, Alaric the Goth sacking Rome. Not that long a time, comparatively, and while there were technological advances they were of a fairly unspectacular sort.

It seems to me that it takes multiple generations to come up with technological change; not very many people of our generation would want to experience the technology of the 19th century, but then not many would probably want to experience the technology of the 22nd century either. People are generally most comfortable with what they grew up with, so drastic changes won't happen all at once; they'll creep in bit by bit as each new generation passes and the next grows to take the changes for granted. Same for Elves and Men; why should they want to change the ways that they grew up with? Of course, a lot of Middle-Earth races don't live much longer than we do - but even hobbits are shown as generally reaching 80 or 90 (something we didn't often do, at least not until very recently) and they're the shortest-lived and least influential race in ME. Besides, they don't seem to cotton on to changes any more than Elves and Men do, even if they have less say in things [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img].