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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnacle_goose_myth https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnacle_goose_myth From our late scientific-era perspective it's really di

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnacle_goose_myth https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnacle_goose_myth From our late scientific-era perspective it's really difficult to appreciate how badly intuitive understanding of cause and effect can let us down.

dawatchusay 1y ago
It wasn’t even accepted that an asteroid killed the dinosaurs until early 1990s
- andrewflnr 1y ago
  To be fair, that was a genuinely crazy idea until the detailed evidence came in. The question itself only comes up after lots of relatively modern science. Similar for plate tectonics.
- lukan 1y ago
  Erm, the evidence for an event that happened 60+ mio years ago and the evidence for an event happening every year that you can watch in real time now is maybe not quite comparable?
  - wongarsu 1y ago
    Bird migrations aren't that easy to observe with 1822 tech either. It's not like they could stick a GPS recorder on a bird, or mark a bird and follow it in a car. You can make local observations (many birds fly overhead, heading South-East) but with how difficult travel was it's not trivial to piece that together to the conclusion that birds travel from Europe all the way to Africa
    - lukan 1y ago
      Or you could have talked to people who travel.
      - dlenski 1y ago
        During the early age of scientific inquiry in Europe, very few human travelers were following the white stork's migration route (Europe→Anatolia→Levant→Nile→East Africa), and I'd guess that most of those who did were from the Muslim world and not particularly accessible to European observers. The small number of long-distance travelers and cultural contacts between the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Europe did result in lots of valuable learning; this particular bit of learning just took a while.
conradev 1y ago
and spontaneous generation before that: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_generation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_generation
7952 1y ago
It is possible that people knew that animals flew South for winter and just become unknowable. But then scholars tried to apply a new conceptual framework to that. Asking the question was a step forward, even if the hypothesised answer was wrong. Its basically quackary with good intentions. And I expect some people knew all along that birds flew South but lacked the words or the influence to wrap that in an abstract concept that would be taken seriously.
- ndileas 1y ago
  Maybe honkery?

dawatchusay 1y ago

It wasn’t even accepted that an asteroid killed the dinosaurs until early 1990s

andrewflnr 1y ago
To be fair, that was a genuinely crazy idea until the detailed evidence came in. The question itself only comes up after lots of relatively modern science. Similar for plate tectonics.
lukan 1y ago
Erm, the evidence for an event that happened 60+ mio years ago and the evidence for an event happening every year that you can watch in real time now is maybe not quite comparable?
- wongarsu 1y ago
  Bird migrations aren't that easy to observe with 1822 tech either. It's not like they could stick a GPS recorder on a bird, or mark a bird and follow it in a car. You can make local observations (many birds fly overhead, heading South-East) but with how difficult travel was it's not trivial to piece that together to the conclusion that birds travel from Europe all the way to Africa
  - lukan 1y ago
    Or you could have talked to people who travel.
    - dlenski 1y ago
      During the early age of scientific inquiry in Europe, very few human travelers were following the white stork's migration route (Europe→Anatolia→Levant→Nile→East Africa), and I'd guess that most of those who did were from the Muslim world and not particularly accessible to European observers. The small number of long-distance travelers and cultural contacts between the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Europe did result in lots of valuable learning; this particular bit of learning just took a while.

conradev 1y ago

and spontaneous generation before that: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_generation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_generation

7952 1y ago

It is possible that people knew that animals flew South for winter and just become unknowable. But then scholars tried to apply a new conceptual framework to that. Asking the question was a step forward, even if the hypothesised answer was wrong. Its basically quackary with good intentions. And I expect some people knew all along that birds flew South but lacked the words or the influence to wrap that in an abstract concept that would be taken seriously.

ndileas 1y ago
Maybe honkery?