Oh, come on. They at least have 17th century technology and techniques and that's all we're talking about here. They actually have 21st century technology available to them under the right circumstances, much of it gained in the universities of Europe and the US. The folks in Pakistan are no more advanced than those in Syria, yet they have built and tested functioning nukes.
"... What is the work of genius the first time is the work of a tinsmith soon thereafter. It required genius the first time because it was the first time, and also because technology was so primitive. All the calculations had to be done manually at first, on big mechanical calculators. All the work on the first hydrogen bomb was done on the first primitive computers - Eniac, I think it was called. But today?" Ghosn laughed. It really was absurd. "A videogame has more computing power than Eniac ever did. I can run the calculations on a high-end personal computer in seconds and duplicate what took Einstein months. But the most important thing is that they did not really know if it was possible. It is, and I know that! Next, they made records of how they proceeded. Finally, I have a template, and though I cannot reverse-engineer it entirely, I can use this as a theoretical model..."
Damascus steel isn't something they invented. Like almost everything else in the Arab / Persian / Muslim world it came from someplace else by way of trade. Notice the article mentions that the swords were made from steel from India, called "wootz." Carbon nanotubes are a variation of carbon spheres, or Carbon 60, popularly known as Buckminsterfullerene or "Buckballs," was accidentally discovered and occurs naturally in candle soot. It's a naturally occuring form of carbon, just one we didn't know about until very recently. Our own engineers stumbled across the nanotube and "wire" variants through largely random trial and error. It's not surprising that it has cropped up in materials like this.
Returning to the idea that they "aren't that industrial or creative," there are Afghan gunsmiths working in the backwater tribal areas who can fabricate, from scratch, a viable replica of an AK-47. We must not make the mistake of underestimating people because they happen to be bloodthirsty psychos or don't own a car. That makes us more vulnerable to them. They have every resource that any other human living today has availble, just a lot less inhibition about using it.
Yes. Yes. They can trade and receive technology. We can invent, in short order, ways to annihilate entire cities with a single weapon the design of which required a component only discovered 13 years previous (i.e. the neutron). I don't doubt savages can arm themselves. In the race to survive, though, the free and creative will vanquish.
From Thomas Sowell:
There are only 18 computers per thousand persons in the Arab world, compared to 78 per thousand persons worldwide. Fewer than 400 industrial patents were issued to people in the Arab countries during the last two decades of the 20th century, while 15,000 industrial patents were issued to South Koreans alone.
From Churchill ("The River War", circa 1899!)
"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries.
Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity.
The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it.
No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science‹the science against which it had vainly struggled‹the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome."
God bless Richard Smalley's soul. My son knew him. (father of Bucky Balls)
Afgans had some of the most accurate rifles in the world 200 years ago.