What happened to Mordor?

[Eönwë]

Originally Posted by skip spence

I've also wondered why the likes of Melkor and Sauron couldn't or didn't help their minions develop better weaponry and such. The armies of the bad guys always seem to be have poorer equpiment than the good guys where IMO it should have been the opposite way around.

Well, that is a good point. Though If we're going on about no new technology, we must ask ouselves: What are the Rings of Power? What is the Ring? All technology. They weren't made in the "golden age". And I don't think the palantirs were either. And anyway, if we could go by the path of magic or technology, which would you go by? Many ancient civilisations wet for magic. It is only the ones that went for both (as they were so prosperous) that are remembered as "great". Whether their magic worked or not is another question. I don't believe it did, but that doesn't mean that didn't think it didn't, or that it was a pointless waste of time.
And all the people in positions to create better technology had magic. Take Gandalf ( he was a Maia, but anyway) for example. Insted of rubbing two sticks together (or later using a tinderbox) he could just make fire appear (and anyway, I think anyone, (well, maybe not anyone) could make fire wearing his ring) by saying a few words. No need to go through all the hassle of inventing matches and that sort of stuff (and later on, lighters- after all, he was immortal). And he would start a whole chemical industry, which somehow doesn't seem like the sort of person he is. And with a life of travelling (He was not called the Grey Pilgrim for nothing) how could he use an oven? Invention relies on those that have the knowledge of how to make something, and more importantly, having a reason to invent something like that, a driving need, or at least for the thing to have a purpose (especially very long ago). At leastthe person had to have an idea of something that had not yet been done, or as easily. It seems to me that a lighter is a step back from a ring that can allow you to make fire, never runs oout, and isn't bad for the environment (at least in the case of the ring itself). I just think that there was no need for him to make something for a purpose, when somethinng he already had could do it better.
Take Numenoreans. Men at their best. They would need to find some way to see and communicate with the rest of the world. They would be in a perfect postion to invent something But they already had the palantirs, which are still more advanced by anything we have. Hands-free .
Anyway, given the choice between magic and technology, I would go for magic. Much more immediate results. It either works or doesn't. Technology takes years for sometimes even the smallest part of an invention to be developed. And if all the "magic" was actually highly advanced technology, then who could hope to match that later on, and doesn't that prove that things were invented anyway?