When in the Mayan Riviera last week, we took a couple hours for a quick side trip to Tulum, the site of an ancient Mayan walled "city." We were actually looking at a potential deal nearby to acquire land for affordable housing.

I was amazed by Tulum; it was close to 1,000 years old and is holding up pretty well. A bunch of folks go to the ruins (and pay the small entry fee) in order to use the spectacular beach--think powdered-sugar sand and stunning turquoise water that is clear when you get in it--just below the ruins.

It was hotter than a snake's ass in a wagon rut (Good Morning Vietnam!). And jungle-crazy-humid. Within minutes, all of us had sweat through our pants and shirts. 95% of the rest of the folks had the good sense to wear shorts/swimsuits/etc., but we of course, being businessmen, were wearing our uniforms. So it wasn't until later when I had a shower and a drink that I had a coherent thought about the experience at Tulum.

One thing our guide at Tulum emphasized was the highly sophisticated knowledge of math, cosmology, and engineering possessed by the Mayans who built Tulum. For example, one of their temples had a slit for the sun that lines up with the sun's position on the date of of the summer solstice. On the flip side, the Mayans apparently accomplished all this, including moving thousands of stones from quarries into place, without ever knowing of the wheel. (!) (That is all according to our tour guide.) Apparently those Mayans had never caught Charlton Heston in Ben Hur driving the chariot through ancient Rome (which "happened" a thousand years earlier).

But here, finally, is the point (okay, you can stop your sarcastic rejoicing). I think it is fascinating to consider what these ancient Mayans thought of themselves and their own abilities...I am guessing they thought of themselves as pretty sophisticated, given the temple construction, etc. And perhaps analogously, we think of ourselves as pretty sophisticated, with our ability to fling money around the globe via electronic impulses and fling people around the globe via thin metal tubes with wings and engines bolted on.

But what about people looking back at us in 500 or 1,000 years? (Presuming that's feasible.) Will they sort of snicker at us for thinking that we are sophisticated? Will they say, "Yes, those folks may have invented jet engines and computers, but can you believe how they thought they were so sophisticated but they didn't even have the _______ (!)"