Re: Seed AI and aesthetics

Peter Lakbar (peter.lakbar@swipnet.se)
Sun, 04 Jul 1999 21:20:28 +0200

>> Interestingly enough, several people suggested in the 17th and 18th century
>> that the masses of sea-shells and fossilized sea-creatures found in cliffs
>> and high places were proof that the biblical story of the flood were true,
>> but the remains found were explained away by the scientists of the time as
>> having been carried up there by people, since most scientist at that time
>> where loath to admit to any evidence that would lend credence to the bible.
>
>Actually, Leonardo Da Vinci correctly deduced the origins of sea life
>fossils found in the layers of the mountains, that it was once seabed
>that rose up from tectonic action.

But this wasn't generally accepted by the scientific community at large until much later.
There was a lot of confusion during the dawn of the 'age of reason' in the 17th
century due to the unfortunate tendency to dismiss things out of hand because they seemed to support the bible. Take meteorites for instance. Someone, I don't remember who, once refuted an account of a meteorite fall on the grounds that it might make people think that the stone would have fallen from Heaven.
Even Lavosier didn't belive in meteorites, though perhaps for other reasons.

Peter Lakbar

>Mike Lorrey
>