If David Skalansky Did Not Exist :

[Darryl_P]

I think he's saying that if Newton had never lived, the probability that calculus would still exist today is 99.9999999%

I agree it's more than 99.99% in any case.

[RJT]

Off the subject of the OP:

Ironically (ironical - relative to your joke here), David S. has written one of the finest statements I have read of reasons against abortion. Perhaps, the ONLY intelligent one I have ever read.

Btw, I am not a pro-lifer in the traditional sense – that is, I stay out of the discussion - the subject is way to complex for me.

My main argument against it is a rhetorical question. If there is nothing wrong with it, why do so many (all?) have such a hard time dealing with the decision when they are placed in the situation? If it is so simple, why don’t folk deal with the "procedure" like they would (the procedure of) having a tooth pulled?

Way off topic - sorry - by no means meant to hijack the thread.

[durron597]

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Calculus is a billion to one.

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Nope. So many people got so close. Too many people like Archimedes, Fermat, and Isaac Barrow have existed, that undoubtedly someone would have figured it out even if Newton and Leibniz did not exist.

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Sklansky was saying that it's a billion to one favorite...

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Also, how much were these men a product of their times and the stage in scientific thought at the moment, and how much were they 'ahead of their time'?

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Multiple independent discovery is extremely common in science and mathematics. My favorite example is the HOMFLY polynomial, which is a knot invariant that was discovered by no less than 5 separate groups of mathematicians independently at the same time ("HOMFLY" is the initials of most of them).

[kpux]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Calculus is a billion to one.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nope. So many people got so close. Too many people like Archimedes, Fermat, and Isaac Barrow have existed, that undoubtedly someone would have figured it out even if Newton and Leibniz did not exist.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sklansky was saying that it's a billion to one favorite...

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Iiiii'm dumb.