5 ms·
As some of the skeptics in the article say, we can't be sure there's no link, but there doesn't need to be a link to explain having similar sauces in the two re
by abrowne 6y ago
As some of the skeptics in the article say, we can't be sure there's no link, but there doesn't need to be a link to explain having similar sauces in the two regions. If you have fish, salt, sun and a lack of refrigeration, you are going to have fermented fish soon enough.
- eindiran 6y agoIt does seem like it may be a case of culinary convergent evolution: I'd wager that anything involving fermentation/brewing/pickling/salt preservation is likely to be discovered multiple times by its nature.
- p1necone 6y agoGood thing patents are such a recent invention.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- est31 6y agoPatents are only valid for at most 20 years. On historic timescales, that's nothing.
- jasonwatkinspdx 6y agoAnd on current time tables that can be everything.
- est31 6y agoSure, today, it means a lot that e.g. e-ink screen technology is patented. But once the patents run out there will likely be a cambrian explosion. In the 2040s, who will care about it? Do we care which semiconductor company in SV had a tiny edge over another company 50 years ago? There is so much acquisition, merging and bankruptcy going on that in 200 years, the landscape will be different. Check how many companies managed to stay in the DJIA since its founding in 1896.
- p1necone 6y agoThis is nothing but speculation, but every major evolution to something having a forced 20 year gap before the next major evolution can be made seems like it would have big effects on the long term too. I do think software engineers probably have a uniquely cynical view on patents though - software patents do tend to be more spurious and ridiculous than in other industries.
- kleer001 6y agoJust as there are bagpipes in Scotland and Arabia doesn't mean they did or did not have cultural exchange. It might only mean they both had goats, curiosity, lots of time on their hands, and a semi-musical inclination.
- newacct583 6y ago> It might only mean they both had goats, Goats themselves, however, are absolutely something they got by trade and exchange. All three known domestication events happened in the middle east.
- danans 6y agoBagpipes are also present in between, in Eastern Europe. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kozio%C5%82_(bagpipe) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kozio%C5%82_(bagpipe)
- danans 6y agoAnother one https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaida https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaida
- newacct583 6y agoYeah, this is a Betteridge's Law kind of case. I mean, there's zero evidence for this trade happening and no reason at all to believe it wasn't simultaneously invented. So... no. It wasn't. It plausibly could have been, but there's no evidence. So no.