History general Anonymous 325492
Maybe I'm being an idiot again but I can't find any history-related threads or generals. So I'm gonna make one and I'll start with a question I've been thinking about lately.
What was social mobility like in European and maybe some other countries?
I didn't research it quite thoroughly yet, but in Russian Empire there was something called Table of Ranks. If a commoner spent enough time at the 14th rank and higher they could gain something called "personal nobility". This does not get passed down to your descendants. 8th rank and higher could grant you "hereditary nobility".
Anonymous 325493
Here's an example of social mobility in Russian Empire. Lenin's father (born Ilya Ulyanin - MATERNAL surname!) was the son of a former serf based in Volga region. He received hereditary nobility in 1882 for his work as an educator. He started and managed a lot of schools for Volgan ethnic minorities and was likely some minority himself, but nobody is quite sure which one.
Also, I'm reading Bracewell's article on Fourier transform, and Fourier lived under Napoleon's France, he accompanied Napoleon's expedition into Egypt, and I believe it says he created Fourier's transform after the French Revolution. A lot of his contemporaries were skeptical of his findings, among them are Poisson, Laplace and Euler! I did notice they sounded French-y in my uni years, but I had no context that they actually lived at the same time and kinda knew each other. So, Napoleon's France has some cool contributions to mathematics.
Anonymous 325495
Kinda randomly had this idea, that now that everyone records their life activity in a smartphone or pc (basically), it's possible that we can study historic figures in much greater detail in the future.
Idk how to explain it. You know how in the past we only had the person's writings, but now we will have the photos they took or saved, the cached messages they will have on their phones? Crazy stuff.
