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So what is the plausibility of Archimedes getting help from time travelers to reach heights, depths and breadths of thoughts seemingly mystical in comparison wi

by avmich 6y ago

So what is the plausibility of Archimedes getting help from time travelers to reach heights, depths and breadths of thoughts seemingly mystical in comparison with nearly everything else?

b0rsuk 6y ago
I think it's condescending towards the antique people to claim that they couldn't have figured these things out themselves. People were in all ways as smart and capable as us, they just had lower technology level and different concepts. I'm sure there were some concepts lost to the ages that could be developed into amazing modern technology. It's just how invention works - many times a great invention is not recognized as valuable. Zero is classic case. It was invented independently in various times and areas and forgotten. Without zero you can't have a positional numeric system.
prox 6y ago
Occams Razor states you should first look towards more plausible explanations (aka the simplest, but no simpler) Time traveling does not fit that description. Archimedes was part of a culture of learning, and he was a genius / master of his field.
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  Another thing we should also remember is that just because most of the earliest sources we have are greek means less that the ideas were necessarily novel to those sources than that we simply don't have any earlier record of the ideas. Consider Thamus, as reported by Socrates, as written by Plato, arguing contra legibility, against preserving knowledge in writing. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0174%3Atext%3DPhaedrus%3Apage%3D274 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%... (infra) http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0174%3Atext%3DPhaedrus%3Apage%3D275 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%... (supra) Socrates: Ancient Literature Theorists believe the written word will be used for disinformation campaigns. (voiceover) Theban: You offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction and will therefore seem to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant and hard to get along with, since they are not wise, but only appear wise. Socrates: What if it were true? Phaedrus: Are you just making up fake news about Egypt? Socrates: To you, perhaps an ad hominem against the source is apropos, for you do not evaluate solely the truth of claim. Phaedrus: True, the purported argument of this alleged Theban is sound. Demang im bera vide fit welte na ye finyish kom sif weltemang. (Those who only watch welding tutorials haven't yet become welders.)
- b0rsuk 6y ago
  I think there will come a time when we come back to it. Today we have computers and very fast lookup, but an encyclopaedia won't tell you what you don't know. If you're a specialist, you'll have a hard time to making a discovery in an unrelated field. But a polymath, a renaissance man, a Leonardo, a man of many talents might. There's probably a limit of how much we can discover with current model. Far future inventors will need to have wide internalized knowledge and skills. A computer is a tool. A much more mentally capable person would do more with it.
avmich 6y ago
Apparently HN doesn't recognize a joke and sincere awe at the face of stellar achievements :( . And some even don't believe in progress, arguing that people of old knew what we, people of relative new, know. Wow.

by avmich 6y ago

So what is the plausibility of Archimedes getting help from time travelers to reach heights, depths and breadths of thoughts seemingly mystical in comparison with nearly everything else?

b0rsuk 6y ago

I think it's condescending towards the antique people to claim that they couldn't have figured these things out themselves. People were in all ways as smart and capable as us, they just had lower technology level and different concepts. I'm sure there were some concepts lost to the ages that could be developed into amazing modern technology. It's just how invention works - many times a great invention is not recognized as valuable. Zero is classic case. It was invented independently in various times and areas and forgotten. Without zero you can't have a positional numeric system.

prox 6y ago

Occams Razor states you should first look towards more plausible explanations (aka the simplest, but no simpler) Time traveling does not fit that description. Archimedes was part of a culture of learning, and he was a genius / master of his field.

082349872349872 6y ago
Another thing we should also remember is that just because most of the earliest sources we have are greek means less that the ideas were necessarily novel to those sources than that we simply don't have any earlier record of the ideas. Consider Thamus, as reported by Socrates, as written by Plato, arguing contra legibility, against preserving knowledge in writing. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0174%3Atext%3DPhaedrus%3Apage%3D274 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%... (infra) http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0174%3Atext%3DPhaedrus%3Apage%3D275 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%... (supra) Socrates: Ancient Literature Theorists believe the written word will be used for disinformation campaigns. (voiceover) Theban: You offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction and will therefore seem to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant and hard to get along with, since they are not wise, but only appear wise. Socrates: What if it were true? Phaedrus: Are you just making up fake news about Egypt? Socrates: To you, perhaps an ad hominem against the source is apropos, for you do not evaluate solely the truth of claim. Phaedrus: True, the purported argument of this alleged Theban is sound. Demang im bera vide fit welte na ye finyish kom sif weltemang. (Those who only watch welding tutorials haven't yet become welders.)
b0rsuk 6y ago
I think there will come a time when we come back to it. Today we have computers and very fast lookup, but an encyclopaedia won't tell you what you don't know. If you're a specialist, you'll have a hard time to making a discovery in an unrelated field. But a polymath, a renaissance man, a Leonardo, a man of many talents might. There's probably a limit of how much we can discover with current model. Far future inventors will need to have wide internalized knowledge and skills. A computer is a tool. A much more mentally capable person would do more with it.

avmich 6y ago

Apparently HN doesn't recognize a joke and sincere awe at the face of stellar achievements :( . And some even don't believe in progress, arguing that people of old knew what we, people of relative new, know. Wow.