(August 30, 2012 at 10:41 pm)Cthulhu Dreaming Wrote:(August 30, 2012 at 9:58 pm)Napoléon Wrote: Listening to how Isaac Newton basically invented calculus blows my mind. I mean, he must of been a clever bastard to come up with that shit all by himself.
Yeah, Newton was one in a million, figuratively speaking, or more like one in a billion. Many of his contributions to human knowledge are relevant today, and others served as the foundation for the likes of Einstein to build upon.
I have in the past (and to my shame) found it easy to think of earlier cultures as unsophisticated and ignorant. While there is some basis in truth to that as throughout the majority of human history, the common people were largely uneducated and illiterate, when you look at the accomplishments of those who were educated... ...all the way back to the ancient Romans, Greeks, Chinese [and many, many others, omissions are unintentional]... ...we can see what human ingenuity is capable of.
I can only imagine how things might appear today, had it been possible for broader education and development of human potential.
Newton actually stopped English mathematics progressing for a while; he did invent calculus (So did Leibnitz, using different notations - modern calculus stems from Leibnitz's work) but refused to let it progress beyond what he did. There's no doubting he was a genius, but he was more than a bit of a prick.
If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. - J.R.R Tolkien
