5 ms·

>Calment had correctly answered questions about things that her daughter could not have known first hand. Does anybody know the primary source for this? What d

>Calment had correctly answered questions about things that her daughter could not have known first hand. Does anybody know the primary source for this? What did she know?

bpodgursky 5y ago
I'm pretty skeptical of this line of reasoning. How is there any knowledge a mother couldn't have told her daughter?
- spoonjim 5y ago
  Of course it can't be proved, but there is a lot of knowledge that is extremely unlikely to be transmitted to the next generation. For example, if you had lived in a place for your childhood and then moved away, and your children hadn't had access to the property, I could ask you detailed questions about the room layout of your house, the geography of your town, to draw the outline of the mountains you would have seen out of your childhood bedroom window, etc. It would be very hard to transmit that to your children, although it would be easy to forget (especially at 122!) so your inability to produce these recollections would not be evidence of fraud but your ability to produce them would be some evidence against it.
  - TeMPOraL 5y ago
    Arguably, most of such information would also be easy to recover in the second half of the 20th century, and conversely, it would be hard for contemporary investigators to verify the veracity of the answers. You could be telling things as you remember, or you could be telling them as you've learned about them later, or you could be making them up (and relying on the truth to be lost to history).
    - spoonjim 5y ago
      Oh sure, it would require verification. It would be an expensive effort, used to verify something like the world's oldest woman but not a run of the mill insurance claim.
  - WalterBright 5y ago
    I've used google street view to look at the locations of my parents' childhood homes. Of course, one was very hard to find until I eventually figured out the entire area had been re-developed. Street view is also fun to see how places I've lived have changed.
thrwyoilarticle 5y ago
Update: possibly this https://www.demogr.mpg.de/books/odense/6/09.htm https://www.demogr.mpg.de/books/odense/6/09.htm

>Calment had correctly answered questions about things that her daughter could not have known first hand. Does anybody know the primary source for this? What did she know?

bpodgursky 5y ago

I'm pretty skeptical of this line of reasoning. How is there any knowledge a mother couldn't have told her daughter?

spoonjim 5y ago
Of course it can't be proved, but there is a lot of knowledge that is extremely unlikely to be transmitted to the next generation. For example, if you had lived in a place for your childhood and then moved away, and your children hadn't had access to the property, I could ask you detailed questions about the room layout of your house, the geography of your town, to draw the outline of the mountains you would have seen out of your childhood bedroom window, etc. It would be very hard to transmit that to your children, although it would be easy to forget (especially at 122!) so your inability to produce these recollections would not be evidence of fraud but your ability to produce them would be some evidence against it.
- TeMPOraL 5y ago
  Arguably, most of such information would also be easy to recover in the second half of the 20th century, and conversely, it would be hard for contemporary investigators to verify the veracity of the answers. You could be telling things as you remember, or you could be telling them as you've learned about them later, or you could be making them up (and relying on the truth to be lost to history).
  - spoonjim 5y ago
    Oh sure, it would require verification. It would be an expensive effort, used to verify something like the world's oldest woman but not a run of the mill insurance claim.
- WalterBright 5y ago
  I've used google street view to look at the locations of my parents' childhood homes. Of course, one was very hard to find until I eventually figured out the entire area had been re-developed. Street view is also fun to see how places I've lived have changed.

thrwyoilarticle 5y ago

Update: possibly this https://www.demogr.mpg.de/books/odense/6/09.htm https://www.demogr.mpg.de/books/odense/6/09.htm