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There's a lot about Doyle that was atypical. Brilliant mind. But he believed in some pretty supernatural stuff as well. Faeries and the like. Imagine what you

There's a lot about Doyle that was atypical. Brilliant mind. But he believed in some pretty supernatural stuff as well. Faeries and the like. Imagine what you believe in now that will seem fanciful in a century.

ggg9990 8y ago
Is that weird? Tons of brilliant people through history have believed in God, spirits, and other supernatural stuff.
- Mr_Miner 8y ago
  True including Einstein,Edison,Newton and writers like Victor Hugo etc.
conanbatt 8y ago
I think our period will be jokes about diets. "The second paleo era"
empath75 8y ago
It seemed fanciful at the time and he was mocked for it quite a bit.
Mr_Miner 8y ago
But some matters that seem pseudoscience or para psychological that have been said in his work were actually in general sense.
SaulOfTheJungle 8y ago
There is nothing supernatural about faeries.
- pacnard 8y ago
  Cryptozoology? I still think it can fall into the supernatural somewhat?
  - OscarCunningham 8y ago
    They're supernatural in terms of literary genre, but in terms of the actual content of the belief there's nothing supernatural about the idea that there could be people much smaller than us (unless you also claim they have magical powers).
    - navaati 8y ago
      Well no, a major characteristic of a fairy it that it flies, it has insect-like wings in the back. And I believe that from a bio-mechanical (muscular, skeletal) point of view, insect-like wings capable on sustaining flight are not possible on a human back. For an interesting take on this, see the Artemis Fowl series of books where fairies don't have actual wings but are much more advanced that us regular humans, and fly thanks to technological winged backpacks, and this is the origin of the human myth of fairies (they started hiding after middle age, thus why the myth stayed intact).
      - OscarCunningham 8y ago
        That seems to me like a natural argument against a natural hypothesis, rather than a proof that the hypothesis is supernatural. I guess I'm using a definition of "supernatural" like Richard Carrier's: "mental things [that] cannot be reduced to nonmental things" (http://richardcarrier.blogspot.com/2007/01/defining-supernatural.html http://richardcarrier.blogspot.com/2007/01/defining-supernat...). So under this definition wizards, psychics, ghosts and gods are all supernatural; but Bigfoot, UFO abductions and fairies aren't. The Artemis Fowl series is great. Although in the context of this discussion I find it funny that the fairies do have magical powers, it's just that flying isn't one of them.
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indigochill 8y ago
I'm under the impression that brilliant minds tend to come with eccentricity attached. Part of being brilliant (or at least intelligent) is the awareness that much of what we take as fact isn't. For example, it used to be a "fact" that an imbalance of humors caused all diseases. The corollary is that when you believe something people think is silly, like that faeries exist, they may be wrong. This is particularly tricky with beliefs like this one which are technically impossible to empirically disprove.
- s-shellfish 8y ago
  It's honestly easier to just create a bucket labeled 'beliefs' and make your own mental model of keeping track of which things are beliefs and which things are actual fact. You can still pull things out of the bucket and put things into it. It's just easier to manage that way, because you might have to deal with some statements that go from being empirically disproven to proven to disproven to proven and so on and so forth for a long time. Just a consequence of too much information and a brain that can't handle all of it independently. Being able to trust others in their understanding is helpful but it's probably not going to help you sleep at night trying to figure out what you know and what you don't.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
honestoHeminway 8y ago
I wonder if such open mindedness, allows you to explore edge cases of your field more easily. If you do not discard outliers as data-noise, but fairys pulling on the fabrique of reality- maybe you investigate something, others by the virtue of there filters are blind for. Sure, your lack of comon sense, will not allow you tomake heads and tails from it, but otherwise..

ggg9990 8y ago

Is that weird? Tons of brilliant people through history have believed in God, spirits, and other supernatural stuff.

Mr_Miner 8y ago
True including Einstein,Edison,Newton and writers like Victor Hugo etc.

conanbatt 8y ago

I think our period will be jokes about diets. "The second paleo era"

empath75 8y ago

It seemed fanciful at the time and he was mocked for it quite a bit.

Mr_Miner 8y ago

But some matters that seem pseudoscience or para psychological that have been said in his work were actually in general sense.

SaulOfTheJungle 8y ago

There is nothing supernatural about faeries.

pacnard 8y ago
Cryptozoology? I still think it can fall into the supernatural somewhat?
- OscarCunningham 8y ago
  They're supernatural in terms of literary genre, but in terms of the actual content of the belief there's nothing supernatural about the idea that there could be people much smaller than us (unless you also claim they have magical powers).
  - navaati 8y ago
    Well no, a major characteristic of a fairy it that it flies, it has insect-like wings in the back. And I believe that from a bio-mechanical (muscular, skeletal) point of view, insect-like wings capable on sustaining flight are not possible on a human back. For an interesting take on this, see the Artemis Fowl series of books where fairies don't have actual wings but are much more advanced that us regular humans, and fly thanks to technological winged backpacks, and this is the origin of the human myth of fairies (they started hiding after middle age, thus why the myth stayed intact).
    - OscarCunningham 8y ago
      That seems to me like a natural argument against a natural hypothesis, rather than a proof that the hypothesis is supernatural. I guess I'm using a definition of "supernatural" like Richard Carrier's: "mental things [that] cannot be reduced to nonmental things" (http://richardcarrier.blogspot.com/2007/01/defining-supernatural.html http://richardcarrier.blogspot.com/2007/01/defining-supernat...). So under this definition wizards, psychics, ghosts and gods are all supernatural; but Bigfoot, UFO abductions and fairies aren't. The Artemis Fowl series is great. Although in the context of this discussion I find it funny that the fairies do have magical powers, it's just that flying isn't one of them.

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indigochill 8y ago

I'm under the impression that brilliant minds tend to come with eccentricity attached. Part of being brilliant (or at least intelligent) is the awareness that much of what we take as fact isn't. For example, it used to be a "fact" that an imbalance of humors caused all diseases. The corollary is that when you believe something people think is silly, like that faeries exist, they may be wrong. This is particularly tricky with beliefs like this one which are technically impossible to empirically disprove.

s-shellfish 8y ago
It's honestly easier to just create a bucket labeled 'beliefs' and make your own mental model of keeping track of which things are beliefs and which things are actual fact. You can still pull things out of the bucket and put things into it. It's just easier to manage that way, because you might have to deal with some statements that go from being empirically disproven to proven to disproven to proven and so on and so forth for a long time. Just a consequence of too much information and a brain that can't handle all of it independently. Being able to trust others in their understanding is helpful but it's probably not going to help you sleep at night trying to figure out what you know and what you don't.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

honestoHeminway 8y ago

I wonder if such open mindedness, allows you to explore edge cases of your field more easily. If you do not discard outliers as data-noise, but fairys pulling on the fabrique of reality- maybe you investigate something, others by the virtue of there filters are blind for. Sure, your lack of comon sense, will not allow you tomake heads and tails from it, but otherwise..