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> To me, the complaints that there are no more grand fundamental discoveries is alike to complaining that we are not discovering any new continents on Earth...

> To me, the complaints that there are no more grand fundamental discoveries is alike to complaining that we are not discovering any new continents on Earth... anyone of any era could claim this. and many did. yet here we are, still discovering things, and not discovering new continents. it is folly to assume that we have discovered everything, or even a small fraction of everything. I think you will find that it is difficult to find someone who has been vetted by a system who would be open to admitting that said system is fundamentally flawed, especially when successful passage through that system grants things that those who have been through it want to have, such as academia does.

armchairhacker 4y ago
I 100% agree that academia is flawed. But I think the reason we're not making grand fundamental discoveries is that the "low-hanging fruit" was already done. We definitely haven't discovered everything, and we're actually making way more discoveries much faster than people back then. But the things which are easy or even "not super hard" to discover have already been discovered. Most of the discoveries require background knowledge or are more "niche" things, because discoveries which are really big and affect everyone are easy to find and going to have everyone searching for them. In fact we could maybe discover a new continent. But it would have to be tiny or underwater or camouflaged or otherwise have some reason that despite having a map of the whole Earth and satellites everywhere, we haven't discovered it yet. When Columbus "discovered" America there weren't nearly as many ships floating around as there are boats/planes/satellites today.
- ta988 4y ago
  That plus the fact that most discoveries require more people and equipment than ever before.
pvaldes 4y ago
> We are not discovering new continents on Earth Meanwhile in Earth... oh, man, this tiny rock in Pluto has exactly the shame shape of Mickey Mouse's dog, call the press!

armchairhacker 4y ago

I 100% agree that academia is flawed. But I think the reason we're not making grand fundamental discoveries is that the "low-hanging fruit" was already done. We definitely haven't discovered everything, and we're actually making way more discoveries much faster than people back then. But the things which are easy or even "not super hard" to discover have already been discovered. Most of the discoveries require background knowledge or are more "niche" things, because discoveries which are really big and affect everyone are easy to find and going to have everyone searching for them. In fact we could maybe discover a new continent. But it would have to be tiny or underwater or camouflaged or otherwise have some reason that despite having a map of the whole Earth and satellites everywhere, we haven't discovered it yet. When Columbus "discovered" America there weren't nearly as many ships floating around as there are boats/planes/satellites today.

ta988 4y ago
That plus the fact that most discoveries require more people and equipment than ever before.

pvaldes 4y ago

> We are not discovering new continents on Earth Meanwhile in Earth... oh, man, this tiny rock in Pluto has exactly the shame shape of Mickey Mouse's dog, call the press!