Slashdot Mirror
Edgar Allan Poe, Cosmologist
David Mazzotta writes "Bet you didn't know Edgar Allen Poe pre-discovered the Big Bang and Black Holes. This article at the NYT discusses the concept of pre-discovery, or theorhetical anticipation of eventual scientific discoveries. Most of these come from forward thinking physicists, but occasionally they come from a morbid, alcoholic, poet."
I betcha Poe didn't forecast pr0n by telecommunication...
"All things that are, are fire." -- Heracleitus
Do you think this meant he understood atomic energy?
Or was this just the rap he used to score chicks?
The opposite of progress is congress
Einstein initially pooh-poohed the idea, and it wasn't widely accepted until the 1930's...
Nice... Nice move, NYT. Leave it to someone in the Arts section to write an article discussing physics and science predictions.
Pooh-Poohed?!
that read this post and mis-read "cosmotologist"
quoth the raven " use the mousse.."
HP Lovecraft predicted the existence of horribly betentacled monstrosities from outside the space we know long before they were first discovered lukring unspeakably behind bricked off rooms in the basement of DARPA.
Lovecraft was also an early adopter of continental drift, and it is early adoption, not invention, that we are talking about. The Big Bang did not achieve general acceptance until the 1960s, it is true, however, others besides Poe had proposed similar theories (something about a Cosmic Seed, I recall) before Poe.
In statistical terms - writers are drunken cranks. They are more likely to adopt fringe beliefs before the rest of the population. Some of those fringe beliefs will turn out to be true. The writer will seem prophetic. It's of little significance.
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
I think of Poe as more of an opium fiend.
In fact he predicted Poe would predict black holes!!! No, seriously its almost as if you could predict anything from a convoluted sentance.... no really!
- This and all my posts are public domain. I am a Physicist. I am not your Physicist. This is not Physically advice
Poe was NOT an alcoholic
You are probably correct sir. Alcoholics go to meetings. But drunks do not.
From a fellow Drunk.
There is a model of how a hypothetical Internet site called "Slashdot" behaves.
There is a model of how text entered into this hyprothetical site changes state, through unseen processes called "moderating".
They have detected something that accepts text and causes it to change state based on this hypothetical event called "moderating".
They have concluded this must therefore be "Slashdot".
As "proof" goes, that's fairly feeble.
I am very skeptical about the very existance of this supposed "Slashdot" object, and adhere to the alternate hypothesis that it is in fact thousands of monkeys pounding on typewriters.
Try to prove me wrong. You cannot. There is no scientific proof that "Slashdot" exists, apart from certain observed phenomenon that follow the predicted behavior.
If your children ever found out how lame you are, they'd murder you in your sleep