If David Skalansky Did Not Exist :

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Calculus is a billion to one.

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When I first read this it seemed like a vast overstatement. But when you consider how few really intelligent people in the world prior to the past century had the opportunity for a great education or just the money and leisure to educate themselves, then it is easy to see how the level of knowledge in various fields in history was in fact more likely to stagnate at a certain level than to advance.