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As Carl Sagan put it, "The fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laugh
by Jach 9y ago
As Carl Sagan put it, "The fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown."
- dragonwriter 9y agoColumbus really belongs with Bozo and not Fulton and Wright. His plan was ridiculed because it was ridiculous for reasons which were had been clear since before the rise, much less fall, of Rome, could not reasonably have worked, and did not work. He happened to stumble into something unrelated in the course of his crazy plan (which is the only reason anyone on the expedition survived), which lots of people who weren't him recognized as something new and valuable independently of the goal Columbus had both insanely set out and, even more insanely, insisted after the fact and to his death that he had succeeded in.
- JoeAltmaier 9y agoOk but it's possible he had a Chinese map from an earlier expedition, and while he misinterpreted where he was going, he was pretty sure that he was going somewhere.