Discoveries and Inventions

Discoveries are identifications. Inventions are creations. Fire existed in nature and its discovery by a human required a focus of identification. As animals, human ran from fire because they sensed panic in the animals that were fleeing even before they were first confronted by the challenge of wildfire. Discovering that burned meat (and vegetables) could be eaten probably resulted from dire circumstances and it was likely one cause of human interest in fire. Glacial cold would have been the other likely cause and the conceptual leap in understanding that fire would solve that problem was a heroic identification. Eventually, camp fires brought stories and some stories were funny. 

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

How Do You Make God Laugh? 

Gilda Radner: It’s Always Something 

Some Sociology of Academic Astronomy 

The Big Whimper of Modern Philosophy 

Two Books on Fermat’s Last Theorem 

Big Bang Theory: More Friends than Seinfeld