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This presentation was on par with the likes of Gutenberg's press, whoever first smelted metal, Einstein's relativity, and a handful of other simple concepts wi
by ctdonath 13y ago
This presentation was on par with the likes of Gutenberg's press, whoever first smelted metal, Einstein's relativity, and a handful of other simple concepts with singularity / black-swan level impacts. Great improvements & refinements occurred to be sure, but the base concepts were utterly new and staggeringly impactful.
- eru 13y agoThe Chinese had invented printing presses with movable type before (but just didn't have that much use for it, given their writing system). Lorentz and others had worked on precursors to special relativity, relativity was in the air. If Einstein hadn't been there, we might have had to wait a few years more for some lesser minds to come up with a piece of relativity and his contributions to quantum mechanics each, but we would have gotten those achievements in any case.