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0 pointsscott_s13y ago0 comments

They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

- Carl Sagan

Sure, he could be on to something. But we also need an enormous amount of skepticism when evaluating it, just as we do when evaluating any large claim. What pings my radar is that we're still trying to understand how our body processes "whole food" as opposed to vitamins in supplement form.

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4 comments · 2 top-level

qu4z-213y ago· 2 in thread

In fairness, Columbus was also wrong.

If they hadn't happened across the Americas, they would all have died. India was nowhere near where he thought it was, and almost exactly where the common knowledge of the time (and Eratosthenes) said it was.

Sorry. It's just a pet peeve of mine when people think Columbus was somehow right, or even worse, that people believed the world was flat pre-Columbus.

EDIT: To be clear, I'm not implying you think that, but it seems to be implied in the Sagan quote that Columbus was something other than completely wrong in his assessment of the situation (or possibly lying 'cause he wanted to explore the other side of the world. He certainly seems to have been brave enough)

ekianjo13y ago

And Colombus believed, till his death, that he had reached India. He never realized this was another continent altogether.

alttab13y ago

And he ate more than soylent.

BystanderX13y ago

If only they were as reasonable stating this as you.

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