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Feather-based Jacobean Space Chariot
simonmsh writes "The article Cromwell's moonshot: how one Jacobean scientist tried to kick off the space race describes 17th century plans to build a space chariot out of springs, feathers and gunpowder. The design was based on the idea that gravity disappeared at an altitude of 20 miles, which was called into question by Hooke ? and Boyle ? 's work.
It sounds like the plot of a Neal Stephenson book." Said book, and its sequels are phenomenal.
The difference, I think, is that our technology does what it's supposed to do. I mean, I look at an abacus or slide rule and I don't think, "Oh, hah hah, those silly pre-computer people, what cute toys they had!" I think, "Wow, that's a really elegant solution to a difficult problem ... but I'm glad I don't have to use that thing." Our cars and trains and ships and planes do move us around; our computers do crunch numbers; our space technology did (and hopefully someday will again) get us to the Moon. There's a difference between doing the best you can with what you've got, and flights of fancy.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
It sounds like the plot of a Neal Stephenson book.
Hmm... Also reminds me of the plot of a Jules Verne book - one that predates Stephenson by a number of years.
Our technology and science, though it may be primitive to someone in the future, will never be looked back on with the same feelings as this crap.
By actually using the concepts of the scientific method (experimentation etc), we come up with things that are true (as far as we can measure them) rather than stories we make up that sound good.
"Gravity is what requires us to eat, it pulls the food out of our bodies"... The fact that this explanation was considered shows that the concept of digestion wasn't understood. There is nothing wrong with that. The problem is that this theory is easily tested, by laying down or standing on your head for a day and seeing if you get hungry.
Newton's model of physics has been shown to be "wrong", but we don't fault him for that, he drew proper conclusions from the available data.