cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/32524920

I watched several videos on a Combine Harvester’s inner workings and I still don’t understand how this thing works.

  • LOGIC💣@lemmy.worldEnglish
    80·
    3 days ago

    People don’t seem to understand that complicated things don’t just get invented out of nowhere. They almost always are the result of many steps along the way, each of which was useful in its own right.

    And that’s why it’s common that multiple people invent the same thing at the same time. Like the theory of evolution, or the telephone. These things may be complicated, but all of the building blocks were created over a long time, and suddenly, their invention or discovery becomes inevitable.

    Not to say that it never happens that people make large leaps, but it’s rare.

    • Krauerking@lemy.lolEnglish
      321·
      3 days ago

      To many “smart” people have stood up and taken the credit for hundreds of others and generations of work.

      We have been sold and buy the idea that there a supermen out there that are beyond clever and capable when they are just the result of their environment and resources from others. And now history is looked at through that lenses looking for singulars where there is plural.

    • mortemtyrannis@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      No you’re wrong the eyeball is so complicated the only explanation is a divine being created us!!!

      (Im being very sarcastic)

      • NannerBanner@literature.cafeEnglish
        5·
        2 days ago

        Well fuck that divine being, because squid eyes are better. I’ve had it up to here with the human god, I’m going to go start worshiping c’thulhu.

    • Honytawk@lemmy.zipEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      Even all those different little inventions had plenty of steps along the way, and almost all of them were viable during its time.

      The greatest strength humanity has had to create ingenious machines wasn’t intelligence.

      It was time and manpower.

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      2 days ago

      Same with evolution. “The eyeball is too complex to evolve as a whole unit!” Well, that’s absolutely correct. First, start with a patch of light sensitive cells, iterate.

    • Snowcano@startrek.websiteEnglish
      7·
      2 days ago

      all of the building blocks were created over a long time, and suddenly, their invention or discovery becomes inevitable.

      The first season of Connections did an exceptional job of illustrating that idea. Highly recommended!