He isn't so far of... aliens whatever their composition is, quite possibly need a source of energy, we eat organic materials that are converted in energy, entropy is a bitch, and has a tendency to spoil energy all the time. Robots, may be the first form of life we would encounter, robots can be powered by a variaty of sources, solar energy, nuclear... Other life forms like silicon base life forms, may need something else. But if it is organic, most likely they would need a organic food source. Despite the elegant language, the old scientists didn't have all the knowledge we have this days, even among common folks we are more well versed than they are, but even so, in a time where someone like him could literally become a human barbecue just for writing about this, the very idea aliens would be quite genious. It sound stupid for us, and probably sound even more stupid for his people, the same way that i saw watching in the comment sections of youtube a man arguing that a character from an ep. of the Love, Death + Robots antology, just because the creature, a giant telepathic space spider, because it look like a monster, it was evil, only aliens that look like us can be good and decent... despite the creature in the ep, act in a very benevolent manner. Theres folks still today, that belive in such things, antropomorphic aliens! So imagine how the idea if a giant telephatic alien spider would sound for his people? Imagine explain something like this to a priest? Winged man is borderline heresy, a giant space spider? That is a big NOPE!
Lucian's "True History" also contains descriptions of aliens and is 1500 years older than this. That said, it is ancient science fiction as opposed to scientific speculation.
And then there is Johannes Kepler's novel SOMNIUM, published in 1634 by his son Ludwig, as the first true piece of science based fiction. Which also contains descriptions of Aliens on the moon, in what Kepler presents as a dream. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somnium_(novel)
The Archbishop Nicholas of Cusa in his book De Docta ignorantia published in 1440 also wrote about how there might be other life in other planets. In his book he wrote that “life as it exists on earth in the form of men, animals and plants, is to be found, let us suppose in high form in the solar and stellar regions. Rather than think that so many stars and parts of the heavens are uninhabited and that this earth of ours alone is peopled - and that with being perhaps of inferior type - we will suppose that in every region there inhabitants, differing in nature and rank and all owing to their origin to God, who is the center and circumference of stellar regions.”
It's more of an intelligent design argument. The basic thought process at the time, pretty much immediately after it was conclusively proven that the planets are other worlds going around the Sun the same as the Earth, was that absolutely all of them have life on them, and intelligent life as well, because god would obviously not create entire worlds just to be barren and devoid of purpose.
@Cannabis Dreams The idea that we are ever going to exploit the resources of planets outside our solar system is as delusional as any religious belief.
@@ryandean3162 It's actually clearly both, not more one than the other. The guy is smart and aware, he is saying that God designed the Sun and the Water and Rocky Planets (through designing the elements and laws) and that both these things (Sun and Water and Rocky Planet) would thus create similar life thanks to God (don't worry reader, your God is false and you are just making God angrier and angrier against your shallow heart of cronyism). And being that the guy on the video's focus is smart and aware, you are right that in his mind the implication is that God would not meaninglessly create barren worlds that are just giant lifeless rocks if God favors life over rocks. Otherwise, God could have started to side with Satan yesterday (which is why he kept Satan existing for this long in the first place), after all Might Makes Right (aka God does whatever God wants).
A lot of sound conjecture that we still use to explain evolutionary phenomena today. Even if he didn’t have data about other planets, simply looking at our own world with a critical eye lead him to a lot of conclusions that modern people have hypothesized.
@@tpower1912 the idea of convergence in biology must have been being explored a lot considering all of the new life they were seeing in the Americas, basically was an alien world to them!
What I'm most consistently impressed by in your videos is how well you make difficult, old-timey, fancy writings sound conversational. Must be difficult to assign the inflections in a way that sounds recognizable to us.
@Landon Littrell sorry it's kind of funny that you're trying to talk down to this person about how language has been "allowed get less intelligent" or something, while your comment is riddled with spelling errors.
Interesting how he describes convergent evolution without knowing what evolution is. As off as he was, he was right about many things. Aliens would look alien to our world, but basic physics, and biology's necessity to conserve resources and energy would lead to similar trends on other worlds. For example, eyes have evolved independently around 40 times on Earth, and thought vastly different in appearance, they're all fundamentally the same. The general tendency is for 2 eyes with some degree of overlapping view for focus and depth perception. Creatures such as arachnids have more eyes, but this adaptation is do to lack of a mobile neck, the still tend to hunt and navigate primarily with their two larger forward- facing eyes. Eyes are vulnerable and easily damaged, you don't want too many of them. The body doesn't need to expend extra resources to grow and maintain superfluous structures, so logic would conclude that 2 eyes would be the dominate trend in the universe. Furthermore, you're not going to see creatures with excessive amounts of limbs, especially large creatures because of how taxing that would be on their metabolism.
You remind me of Beynd the Aquila Rift... And i really saw that, he isn't really all that far of when it comes to source of energy, he lacks the same knowledge we have, but not so far off. Nature indeed has a pattern, that is very apparent, energy comes and energy goes...
Eyes didn’t evolve. They were created by God, along with everything else. It is utterly foolish to look at the extreme precision and design found throughout our bodies, our world, our solar system, and our universe and conclude that it is the result of essentially, random happenstance. If I told you that the design, shape and function of a Coke can evolved to what it is over millions of years, you would probably think it ludicrous, and rightly so. And why? Because, a Coke can shows elements which can only be rationally attributed to intentional and intelligent design, rather than random chance. It’s the same with the eye. It is utterly irrational to conclude that something which is so infinitely useful and vastly more complex than a Coke can evolved over any span of time.
I think there is merit to articulated “hands” and possibly bipedalism - at least for intelligent life. In order to build anything you need some way to manipulate the world around you and that can come in the form of arms with fingers and thumbs or something more akin to tentacles. Unless the alien creatures found a way to move things with their minds, or got really good at moving things with their mouths, they will have to have a useful appendage(s) similar to ours.
sidenote, but i always felt the viking thing was a bit overstated jn its overcorrection of a technicality. while yes they might have been to the Americas, but it doesnt seem to have had all that much lasting effect on either society. while colobus’s arrival was a lot more significant for both. idk seems like “point out the letter while forgetting the spirit”, since that voyage actually brought the old and new world into a consequential and continuous interaction.
I can imagine this person at the pub a couple years down the line being like 'Are yes the animals of the Americas and Europe are basically the same, therefore animals will be the same on Jupiter.' and his mates being like. 'About that, Chris errr well there's no easy way to say this, but umm, there's this new place south of Asia and well, the animals are wild.'
Even Australia has animals that are much like that of Europe, Americas, and Asia. Why it is easy to remark that the opossum is much like that of the roo's and other marsupials.
I think he was referring to convergent evolution. E.g. The eyes of an Octopus and humans evolved completely independently. Both reached a similar end result... dispite it happening independently. Orcas and sharks evolved completely independently, yet there are similarities.
What a fun speculative mind he had. Centuries later we're still turning similar speculations over in our minds about the exoplanets. How sad it is that the people back then speculating that the planets were dull dry rocks were so on the nose.
@@omarb7164 Are you denying the Soviet-scale indoctrination going on in our schools? A troll by me is somebody resorting to scurrilous untrue attacks on private individuals. The term is not applicable to even partially true attacks on the nomenklatura and not at all to criticism of movements and the like.
That is the current thinking on the development of human intelligence -- bipedalism and a freeing of the hands came first and enabled it -- not the reverse, as the Victorians thought.
I would love a early scientific thinker series of voices of the past! Especially Benjamin Franklin, Sir Ronald Francis, and others in the early days of "electric philosophy"
Yeah! Let’s get some videos on prolific serial killer and slave owner Benny Franks! Who wouldn’t want to listen to the words of uneducated nobody racist and prolific compulsive liar, Ben Franklin?
I like Huygens's idea that in order to thrive aliens would need something as practical as the hand or even better. Today we still often portray aliens with hands even though it doesn't make much more sense than in the 17th century.
@@fav8048 no, hands are not perfect maybe but you need a way to manipulate your environment and hands with fingers and an opposable thumb could definitely be argued that they're the simplest yet most effective way to manipulate and interact with your environment, this is just demonstrably true.
@@letsomethingshine It might be an old name. In German Hippos are called „Flusspferde“ or Nilpferde“, literal translation would be „river horse“ or „Nile horse“. I don‘t know Dutch, but maybe ist is similar in his native tongue.
I have adhd and I just discovered your channel. I keep switching back and forth between videos because my brain wants to watch them all at the same time 😭👍🏻
Kepler wrote the first real science-fiction novel "Somnium", in 1608. It describes what the inhabitants of the moon would be like. (If you want to know more about Kepler, I highly recommend Arthur Koestler's magnificent book "The Sleepwalkers").
@@maseratimitch2024 well, just think of the floors atm, waring, corrupt governments, environmental and species destruction, inequality. Human and animal abuse, food water shortages, basic health care. Granted, life's better than its ever been if your on the fortunate side. But we should strive to move forward and better our situation for all humans, animals, and the environment as we have the power to, collectively. Don't you think?
Such wonderful, imaginative and clear thinking, not only about 'Planetarians', but our own species too. 'The Cosmotheoros' is certainly a book I want in my library.
This is incredible! Truly incredible! If I could, I would love to shake this man's hand for his ability to draw such theories from pure conjectures. This gives further proof that our ancestors weren't always the complete fools we make them out to be. Today's science proves him wrong obviously. We haven't found any other civilizations in our solar system, but ours is one of many.
There is no evidence of intelligent life outside earth. To assume the opposite is conjecture that might well be proven wrong as was his idea of life on others planets in our solar system having life Who knows … we might be all there is in the entire universe.
Magellan was Portuguese and he was on a mission of exploration and conquest (and perished in it). What did he discover other than the Strait of his name?
@@LuisAldamiz That's interesting. I always thought he was Spanish because he was sailing for Spain. Anyway, virtually everyplace he made landfall was a new discovery for Europeans.
@@odysseusrex5908 - Columbus sailed for Castile (Spain did not exist yet) and he was Genoese (and had been trying to sell his absurd theory of a tiny Earth to the better informed King of Portugal for years before knocking at Castile's gates, where he got lucky). John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) was also a Genoese who sailed for England. There are other cases, like the unnamed Phoenicians who first circumnavigated Africa for the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho.
Oh, how I wish I could show Huygans our views of the Planets. Huygans: By What Monsters Telescope have you taken them. Me: No, our Telescopes could not be powerful enough to get them. Huygens: So yes but the only means to get higher resolutions is to be closer but that cant possibly is the case. Me: It is so we have sent telescopes to the Planets. Huygens: Then have you found live on these planets? Me: Sadly not jet but the search goes on.
It's unbelievable how much they know this far into the past. The only thing that they really don't know is that these planets don't have breathable air.
Yea, if I could only formulate thoughts as clear and concise as his, I would ought seem an elevated gentlemen amongst the driveling commonry. But woe, methinks perchance a person of any distinguishment would see straight through my charade and that I would be found a masquerading charleton, no better than a plagiarist.
Allow a suspicion and extinguish your passions. I say with no hesitation that this fellow's wit and clarity is no match to that of Scottishman David Hume. Concede me this suggestion and approach his delightful enquiries on the natural state of human beings and their intellects. You will not find resemblance anywhere in the sphere of classical scholars, guaranteeing your masquerade endeavor to end in unassailable felicity.
That was fantastic. I was completely unfamiliar with this essay. Imagine what Huygens would say about the rockets, space probes, and incredible discoveries of the last sixty four years. I'm sure he would be very disappointed though to learn that life, if it exists at all in this solar system, is only of the simplest and most primitive kind.
An understanding of the predisposition explained in the last line seems to have been the basis not only of supposing intelligent life could exist on other planets but also the basis of improving society, combining the best aspects of different societies and eliminating detrimental traditions kept alive purely for the sake of tradition
This one was fascinating! I love premodern imaginings of space and other worlds! They offer such a nifty perspective on the times they come from (and very cool wondering). Out of the Silent Planet from the early 20th century is one of my very favorites. Stay well out there everybody, and God bless you friends. :)
Actually, a better answer is most of them. Cheng He never got to America, but the Vikings, Columbus, and the Polynesians all did so, independently, and it was a new discovery for each of their peoples.
@@Game_Hero De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the celestial orbits, 1543) and De Docta Ignorantia (1440), or On Learned Ignorance.
It is VERY seldom I feel pride for my countrymen. I never knew Huygens speculated about alien life. I love this early deviation from anthropocentrism. Marvelous
A wonderful lesson on the lone writer's speculations. i.e. Sophistic analysis, gone array, as we to this day have only figured out to supplement it with applied trial n error
His justifications for his claims are very interesting (and sound really funny in hindsight), and really show how far we have advanced in the humanities since the early modern period.
Jeiku This is only the justifications of one scientist on one subject. Have you read at least five other scientists from the period who talked about the same subject? One scientists’ words do not represent all of 17th century opinions.
I know it was a mistake, but you said the Norse were half a Century before Columbus, im certain you meant half a Millennium. TY for an excellent video and reading from this archaic tone, it was a treat to hear from a scientist from that time theorizing on life on other planets in our solar system. TY again and keep up the great work!
1698: nature may have made (alien life) such as neither our understanding nor imagination could conceive 1950s: aliens are like, people, but little and grey
At least he understood the importance of the Sun unlike modern climate change theory and models that all ignore the impact of the sun on the earths climate. We’ve regressed since then.
@@thesatisfiedcustomer4869 Scientists are much more aware of the effects of the sun on climate than Huygens would have been. They also understand how carbon dioxide, along with other greenhouse gases regulate the average global temperature. Pining for the wisdom of the past goes against everything Huygens would have believed in.
@@jasonkinzie8835 it’s exactly this blind worship of scientists, naively thinking they are impartial, that has got us into this mess. The scientist in the white lab coat is the revered like previous generations did the priesthood, Wise up. There are loads of scientists who challenge the official narrative who are silenced & threatened to keep quiet. Trust the science has become the opposite of the scientific approach which is to question and scrutinise & not just blindly believe what you are told. You keep putting your scientists on a pedestal as they keep removing all your freedoms and rights as you squeal “ it’s science “ What a scam. You’ve been had over kid. Wise up.
@@thesatisfiedcustomer4869 First of all I'm 49. Second of all where are you getting your information? Give sources. And I'll do the same. Just not now.
A suggestion: King of Kings and the squire. It’s an account of a young noble man who goes to the Sassanid Emperor to ask for a bailout for his family, and gets quizzed on courtly arts and knowledge of all things pertaining to nobility, from the best horses to purchase to the best wine for a feast.
You left out the best part where he proves that Jupiter must have giant cannabis plantations. Because of its large amount of moons, he argues, it must have much stronger tides than the Earth and therefore an abundance of cannabis to make strong ropes for the ships.
I was wondering why you haven't uploaded any videos in the last 2 months: turns out it's 'cause youtube Unsubscribed me from your channel :( keep up the amazing work!
The whole thing about hands tracks very closely with our contemporary knowledge of human evolution, humans evolved and upright posture and full use of our hands first, then we began to evolve greater intelligence as our hands let us make use of it
In college I took a course on the history of scientific and religious thinking about extraterrestrials. The most fascinating aspect concerned religious arguments that aliens must exist because God is infinitely good and infinitely powerful. In other words, God’s existence necessitates a universal full of beings on other worlds. Would love to see a video focused on that.
It's odd because nowadays Christianity is threatened by the idea of alien life. I never understood how it would somehow destroy religion if we discovered aliens, not sure where they idea came from or how that gained traction.
It’s true. Some Christians since the Middle Ages like The Archbishop Nicholas of Cusa have believed that there might be other life in other planets. In his book De Docta ignorantia published in 1440, the Archbishop Nicholas of Cusa wrote that “life as it exists on earth in the form of men, animals and plants, is to be found, let us suppose in high form in the solar and stellar regions. Rather than think that so many stars and parts of the heavens are uninhabited and that this earth of ours alone is peopled - and that with being perhaps of inferior type - we will suppose that in every region there inhabitants, differing in nature and rank and all owing to their origin to God, who is the center and circumference of stellar regions.”
@@Brade If life were to be discovered within say a decade, within two decades history will show that Christianity has always claimed it to be just so. And it’s evidence shall be pointed to within the Word.
@@Brade That idea is very much related to the rise of the modern fundamentalist movement and a literary interpretation of the Bible. It kills any possibility of hexegesis and discussion. That was not a problem for early christian that didn't feel the need to react to a more secular world. It doesn't help that most christian do recieve a very simplified version of the christian theology.
Anaxagoras. His original writing has been lost, but Aristotle quotes him in _De Partibus Animalium._ "Anaxagoras says that man is the most intelligent of the animals because he has hands, but it would be better to say that he has hands because he is the most intelligent."
Most libraries (particularly university libraries) have access to sourcebooks, books that compile historical sources based on different time periods or themes. Another way is to simply read history books, see which historical primary source is being referenced, and then look up that source.
I find the ending here pretty interesting, where he says that it’s not credible that alien life should have all the characteristics that we have, because it’s very human-centric to think of ourselves as the peak of evolution
Half a century is 500 years right?
No, 50 years.
@@ronaldweasley408 Pretty sure it's 500
@@GrunOne A Century = 100 years. Half Century 50 years. 500 years = half millennia.
@@ronaldweasley408 woosh
@@ronaldweasley408 You're definitely wrong. It's 50 years. Use your head.
"They probably have plants and animals"
10 seconds later:
"That they have plants and animals, I think I have fully proved"
protec & attac nice one 😂
He isn't so far of... aliens whatever their composition is, quite possibly need a source of energy, we eat organic materials that are converted in energy, entropy is a bitch, and has a tendency to spoil energy all the time.
Robots, may be the first form of life we would encounter, robots can be powered by a variaty of sources, solar energy, nuclear...
Other life forms like silicon base life forms, may need something else.
But if it is organic, most likely they would need a organic food source.
Despite the elegant language, the old scientists didn't have all the knowledge we have this days, even among common folks we are more well versed than they are, but even so, in a time where someone like him could literally become a human barbecue just for writing about this, the very idea aliens would be quite genious.
It sound stupid for us, and probably sound even more stupid for his people, the same way that i saw watching in the comment sections of youtube a man arguing that a character from an ep. of the Love, Death + Robots antology, just because the creature, a giant telepathic space spider, because it look like a monster, it was evil, only aliens that look like us can be good and decent... despite the creature in the ep, act in a very benevolent manner.
Theres folks still today, that belive in such things, antropomorphic aliens! So imagine how the idea if a giant telephatic alien spider would sound for his people? Imagine explain something like this to a priest? Winged man is borderline heresy, a giant space spider? That is a big NOPE!
*laughs in gas giant*
Source? "I made it up"
6:38 I think by "sea horses" the author is referring to the hippopotamus. 'Hippo' from the old Greek for horse and 'potamus' meaning river
Yes
also the hippocampus the part of the brain that contains memory
Must be ive never seen a walking sea horse.
Or is it a really cool popotamus ?
@@shaunoco1042 Mitch, how'd you get here?
Lucian's "True History" also contains descriptions of aliens and is 1500 years older than this. That said, it is ancient science fiction as opposed to scientific speculation.
And then there is Johannes Kepler's novel SOMNIUM, published in 1634 by his son Ludwig, as the first true piece of science based fiction.
Which also contains descriptions of Aliens on the moon, in what Kepler presents as a dream.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somnium_(novel)
>That said, it is ancient science fiction as opposed to scientific speculation.
I can imagine this statement not aging very well.
@@isn0t42 how so? True History was written as a parody of mythologies that insist that their obviously fantastical stories are absolute truth.
@@charlesrosenbauer3135 for every truth there is a portion of untruth/falsehood within and vice-versa. Time allows to uncover and/or forget both.
The Archbishop Nicholas of Cusa in his book De Docta ignorantia published in 1440 also wrote about how there might be other life in other planets. In his book he wrote that “life as it exists on earth in the form of men, animals and plants, is to be found, let us suppose in high form in the solar and stellar regions. Rather than think that so many stars and parts of the heavens are uninhabited and that this earth of ours alone is peopled - and that with being perhaps of inferior type - we will suppose that in every region there inhabitants, differing in nature and rank and all owing to their origin to God, who is the center and circumference of stellar regions.”
This is actually pretty rational, considering the state of knowledge he was working with.
Exactly.
I was most impressed by how he predicted lasers
I find it interesting that Christiaan Huygens articulates a early prototype of the theory of convergent evolution in this essay
It's more of an intelligent design argument. The basic thought process at the time, pretty much immediately after it was conclusively proven that the planets are other worlds going around the Sun the same as the Earth, was that absolutely all of them have life on them, and intelligent life as well, because god would obviously not create entire worlds just to be barren and devoid of purpose.
This is an interesting point and I also noticed it
@@rendawtherockstar silence, child.
@Cannabis Dreams The idea that we are ever going to exploit the resources of planets outside our solar system is as delusional as any religious belief.
@@ryandean3162 It's actually clearly both, not more one than the other. The guy is smart and aware, he is saying that God designed the Sun and the Water and Rocky Planets (through designing the elements and laws) and that both these things (Sun and Water and Rocky Planet) would thus create similar life thanks to God (don't worry reader, your God is false and you are just making God angrier and angrier against your shallow heart of cronyism). And being that the guy on the video's focus is smart and aware, you are right that in his mind the implication is that God would not meaninglessly create barren worlds that are just giant lifeless rocks if God favors life over rocks. Otherwise, God could have started to side with Satan yesterday (which is why he kept Satan existing for this long in the first place), after all Might Makes Right (aka God does whatever God wants).
A lot of sound conjecture that we still use to explain evolutionary phenomena today. Even if he didn’t have data about other planets, simply looking at our own world with a critical eye lead him to a lot of conclusions that modern people have hypothesized.
@@tpower1912 that’s some crazy shizz to think about
@@tpower1912 the idea of convergence in biology must have been being explored a lot considering all of the new life they were seeing in the Americas, basically was an alien world to them!
@@niccudrat That's why they called it the *New* World.
“It would be unreasonable to think that the planets are barren.”
>looks at photos of the planets
>they are all barren of life
The search goes on
"It would be unreasonable to think that we're alone in the universe".
Oh, shit...
Fermi paradox
But a billion years ago ?
not true. Huygens proved they were filled with animals.
What I'm most consistently impressed by in your videos is how well you make difficult, old-timey, fancy writings sound conversational. Must be difficult to assign the inflections in a way that sounds recognizable to us.
@Landon Littrell sorry it's kind of funny that you're trying to talk down to this person about how language has been "allowed get less intelligent" or something, while your comment is riddled with spelling errors.
@@justbeyondthecornerproduct3540 Doesnt that prove his point?
@@comradecommissar1945 lol
Interesting how he describes convergent evolution without knowing what evolution is.
As off as he was, he was right about many things. Aliens would look alien to our world, but basic physics, and biology's necessity to conserve resources and energy would lead to similar trends on other worlds. For example, eyes have evolved independently around 40 times on Earth, and thought vastly different in appearance, they're all fundamentally the same. The general tendency is for 2 eyes with some degree of overlapping view for focus and depth perception. Creatures such as arachnids have more eyes, but this adaptation is do to lack of a mobile neck, the still tend to hunt and navigate primarily with their two larger forward- facing eyes. Eyes are vulnerable and easily damaged, you don't want too many of them. The body doesn't need to expend extra resources to grow and maintain superfluous structures, so logic would conclude that 2 eyes would be the dominate trend in the universe.
Furthermore, you're not going to see creatures with excessive amounts of limbs, especially large creatures because of how taxing that would be on their metabolism.
You remind me of Beynd the Aquila Rift...
And i really saw that, he isn't really all that far of when it comes to source of energy, he lacks the same knowledge we have, but not so far off.
Nature indeed has a pattern, that is very apparent, energy comes and energy goes...
Eyes didn’t evolve. They were created by God, along with everything else. It is utterly foolish to look at the extreme precision and design found throughout our bodies, our world, our solar system, and our universe and conclude that it is the result of essentially, random happenstance.
If I told you that the design, shape and function of a Coke can evolved to what it is over millions of years, you would probably think it ludicrous, and rightly so. And why? Because, a Coke can shows elements which can only be rationally attributed to intentional and intelligent design, rather than random chance.
It’s the same with the eye. It is utterly irrational to conclude that something which is so infinitely useful and vastly more complex than a Coke can evolved over any span of time.
I think there is merit to articulated “hands” and possibly bipedalism - at least for intelligent life. In order to build anything you need some way to manipulate the world around you and that can come in the form of arms with fingers and thumbs or something more akin to tentacles. Unless the alien creatures found a way to move things with their minds, or got really good at moving things with their mouths, they will have to have a useful appendage(s) similar to ours.
In your ad you stated that the vikings visited the Americas half a century before Columbus. I think you meant to say half a millennium.
Ah yes, those famous mid 15th century vikings!
Polys and blacks got their A millennium ago
sidenote, but i always felt the viking thing was a bit overstated jn its overcorrection of a technicality. while yes they might have been to the Americas, but it doesnt seem to have had all that much lasting effect on either society. while colobus’s arrival was a lot more significant for both. idk seems like “point out the letter while forgetting the spirit”, since that voyage actually brought the old and new world into a consequential and continuous interaction.
Proto-Asians got there first.
@@kalebb1226 And?
I can imagine this person at the pub a couple years down the line being like 'Are yes the animals of the Americas and Europe are basically the same, therefore animals will be the same on Jupiter.' and his mates being like. 'About that, Chris errr well there's no easy way to say this, but umm, there's this new place south of Asia and well, the animals are wild.'
Even Australia has animals that are much like that of Europe, Americas, and Asia. Why it is easy to remark that the opossum is much like that of the roo's and other marsupials.
Deep-sea: 👀
This joke doesn't make any sense. We knew about south Asia for hundreds of years before America.
@@Ulexcool go further south, bub
I think he was referring to convergent evolution.
E.g. The eyes of an Octopus and humans evolved completely independently. Both reached a similar end result... dispite it happening independently.
Orcas and sharks evolved completely independently, yet there are similarities.
What a fun speculative mind he had. Centuries later we're still turning similar speculations over in our minds about the exoplanets. How sad it is that the people back then speculating that the planets were dull dry rocks were so on the nose.
Dreams : Entire civilizations of giant people , Reality: Horrible storms bigger than earth on a completely gas planet.
Or so we think, yes
@@oskardelitz5651 so we are told
Idk about space, but I do know that there were/are giants on Earth
@@jjs8426 By giants, are you saying maybe Shaq Yao ming types or 20 ft men?
@@mauriceschaeffer5070 easily 20ft and much taller still.
This might earn Christiaan Huygens a paragraph in an Astro-biology school-book as soon as that topic will be added to the curriculum.
Huygens-belt .......
Until it can be used as a weapon against 'racism' it won't be!
@@wynnschaible troll
@@omarb7164 Are you denying the Soviet-scale indoctrination going on in our schools? A troll by me is somebody resorting to scurrilous untrue attacks on private individuals. The term is not applicable to even partially true attacks on the nomenklatura and not at all to criticism of movements and the like.
@@wynnschaible watch?v=w_Pll7GDVgI
The focus on the need of hands (or something similar) to be able to create things or to apply knowledge is very interesting.
Now, what does that remind me of ... oh, right ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footfall
He was told that by dolphins... willing to conceal their 3D water-sound technological capabilities.
Really mind blowing to ponder the notion of alien nutsacks.
That is the current thinking on the development of human intelligence -- bipedalism and a freeing of the hands came first and enabled it -- not the reverse, as the Victorians thought.
While I always find myself appreciating the presentations from the past provided by this channel, _this one_ is absolutely delightful! Loved it! 🤓
Always the best historical snippets! Informative AND entertaining.
When astronomy and physics meet history ,it gives rise to astro history!
No it doesn't
Psycho History
Scared me for a second, I thought you said "afro history." I was like, "What that Neil Degrasse Tyson idiot?"
I would love a early scientific thinker series of voices of the past! Especially Benjamin Franklin, Sir Ronald Francis, and others in the early days of "electric philosophy"
Google mid evil tesla coil.... just do it and be amazed at the story you will find
@@gilligan80 medieval
Yeah! Let’s get some videos on prolific serial killer and slave owner Benny Franks! Who wouldn’t want to listen to the words of uneducated nobody racist and prolific compulsive liar, Ben Franklin?
I like Huygens's idea that in order to thrive aliens would need something as practical as the hand or even better. Today we still often portray aliens with hands even though it doesn't make much more sense than in the 17th century.
@Vanikerch It is definitely an advantage here on earth, but on other planets we'll only be sure if we ever meet such a species.
@@fav8048 no, hands are not perfect maybe but you need a way to manipulate your environment and hands with fingers and an opposable thumb could definitely be argued that they're the simplest yet most effective way to manipulate and interact with your environment, this is just demonstrably true.
kind of surprised he knew about quipu, even if he mentioned them disparagingly
Probably common knowledge for learned Europeans at the time.
"sea-horses and crocodiles...those water-land mongrels" I think he meant Hippos not "sea-horses" LOL SICK BURN GOT'EM
@@letsomethingshine It might be an old name. In German Hippos are called „Flusspferde“ or Nilpferde“, literal translation would be „river horse“ or „Nile horse“. I don‘t know Dutch, but maybe ist is similar in his native tongue.
@@Felis877 -- Thanks for that, Felis. That line about seahorses was confusing. Hippo is of course also the root word for horse.
@@Felis877 yes, hippopotamus is Greek for river horse.
I have adhd and I just discovered your channel. I keep switching back and forth between videos because my brain wants to watch them all at the same time 😭👍🏻
Kepler wrote the first real science-fiction novel "Somnium", in 1608. It describes what the inhabitants of the moon would be like.
(If you want to know more about Kepler, I highly recommend Arthur Koestler's magnificent book "The Sleepwalkers").
the final sentance is the humble brilliance that if everyone thought that deep, we could move forward effectively as a species.
Towards what exactly?
@@maseratimitch2024 well, just think of the floors atm, waring, corrupt governments, environmental and species destruction, inequality. Human and animal abuse, food water shortages, basic health care.
Granted, life's better than its ever been if your on the fortunate side. But we should strive to move forward and better our situation for all humans, animals, and the environment as we have the power to, collectively. Don't you think?
This is incredible! I love hearing the thoughts of the great thinkers from the past..these scientists had true mystery to ponder.
It is always a treat to see a new post on this channel. Thank you, Earthling.
Such wonderful, imaginative and clear thinking, not only about 'Planetarians', but our own species too. 'The Cosmotheoros' is certainly a book I want in my library.
This is incredible! Truly incredible! If I could, I would love to shake this man's hand for his ability to draw such theories from pure conjectures. This gives further proof that our ancestors weren't always the complete fools we make them out to be. Today's science proves him wrong obviously. We haven't found any other civilizations in our solar system, but ours is one of many.
Whoever made out our ancestors to be complete fools?
They are us
There is no evidence of intelligent life outside earth. To assume the opposite is conjecture that might well be proven wrong as was his idea of life on others planets in our solar system having life
Who knows … we might be all there is in the entire universe.
Magellan the great discoverer like many more Spanish , and Portuguese discoverers!!
May their discovery always be remembered!
Magellan was Portuguese and he was on a mission of exploration and conquest (and perished in it). What did he discover other than the Strait of his name?
@@LuisAldamiz That's interesting. I always thought he was Spanish because he was sailing for Spain. Anyway, virtually everyplace he made landfall was a new discovery for Europeans.
@@odysseusrex5908 - Columbus sailed for Castile (Spain did not exist yet) and he was Genoese (and had been trying to sell his absurd theory of a tiny Earth to the better informed King of Portugal for years before knocking at Castile's gates, where he got lucky). John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) was also a Genoese who sailed for England. There are other cases, like the unnamed Phoenicians who first circumnavigated Africa for the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho.
I’m blown away by how he articulates his understanding.
A very thoughtful and well reasoned conjecture. Modern science has confitmed the main thrust and overall reasoning of this brilliant man.
Now THIS is right up my alley😉
Oh, how I wish I could show Huygans our views of the Planets.
Huygans: By What Monsters Telescope have you taken them.
Me: No, our Telescopes could not be powerful enough to get them.
Huygens: So yes but the only means to get higher resolutions is to be closer but that cant possibly is the case.
Me: It is so we have sent telescopes to the Planets.
Huygens: Then have you found live on these planets?
Me: Sadly not jet but the search goes on.
larp
The ad says Norse were in North America half a century before Columbus...wasn't it more like half a millennium? Pretty sure it was.
Woops
to err is human
@@reeyees50 But is it planetarian, as well? That is the question...
@@brianwhite2104 well, you can say it is...
universal
Great as always. Big thanks to the boss, Coco(a) 😺🐾
It's unbelievable how much they know this far into the past. The only thing that they really don't know is that these planets don't have breathable air.
Huygens certainly had such an elegant prose. A true Titan of science. And yes, I do know what I did there.
Good. Intend your puns, people!
That little tidbit at the end on the conceit of the superiority of man is incredibly based especially for the time period
"Based" or "biased"?
@@LuisAldamiz based
@@Raadpensionaris - How is believing in the superiority of "man" genuine?
@Luis Aldamiz I think it's a warhammer 40k meme
@@LuisAldamiz Because he was not a human hating tree hugger such as your self
George Tsoukaloukaloukaloukalous would like to have a word with this fellow visionary.
👽
"The ancient aliens theorists say YES".
I'll just call him George
This is clear proof! There can be no other explanation! Corroborating evidence! Pyramids, Machu Picchu, ATLANTIS!!!
5:20 must of Been pissed off when he found out Jupiter is just all cloud's
"Hark! Thine Lord's heavenly body doth be none but clouds??"
"Verily hath been so..."
Ye Olde Sci-fi
Early-Modern-Era-Aliens
17th century scientists: "Could there be life on other planets?"
2021: "Earth is flat!"
Exceptional. I really enjoyed these old musings for both their accuracy and inaccuracy.
Yea, if I could only formulate thoughts as clear and concise as his, I would ought seem an elevated gentlemen amongst the driveling commonry. But woe, methinks perchance a person of any distinguishment would see straight through my charade and that I would be found a masquerading charleton, no better than a plagiarist.
Hear hear!!
Well said my good man. All the best and godspeed.
Allow a suspicion and extinguish your passions. I say with no hesitation that this fellow's wit and clarity is no match to that of Scottishman David Hume. Concede me this suggestion and approach his delightful enquiries on the natural state of human beings and their intellects. You will not find resemblance anywhere in the sphere of classical scholars, guaranteeing your masquerade endeavor to end in unassailable felicity.
Well, the thesaurus helps!
Ditto!!…
That was fantastic. I was completely unfamiliar with this essay. Imagine what Huygens would say about the rockets, space probes, and incredible discoveries of the last sixty four years. I'm sure he would be very disappointed though to learn that life, if it exists at all in this solar system, is only of the simplest and most primitive kind.
Would love it if you could do Kepler's "sci fi" novel, The Somnium!
Thank you Voices! Christiaan Huygens, another genius revealed to me.
Superb video. Thank you!
An understanding of the predisposition explained in the last line seems to have been the basis not only of supposing intelligent life could exist on other planets but also the basis of improving society, combining the best aspects of different societies and eliminating detrimental traditions kept alive purely for the sake of tradition
You gotta love people from the past
Gotta love people
These days the common assumption is that everyone from the past was evil.
@@MrBottlecapBill because they were all racists cis gender homophobes
@@cv4809 Or they were just men and women of their time
This one was fascinating! I love premodern imaginings of space and other worlds! They offer such a nifty perspective on the times they come from (and very cool wondering). Out of the Silent Planet from the early 20th century is one of my very favorites.
Stay well out there everybody, and God bless you friends. :)
Wow 437k subs! I KNEW this channel would explode because it is such a great idea for a channel. I swear last year you were just at around 130k
How amazing would it have been to been alive back then on the forefront of scientific discoveries? Truly an amazing point in history.
Interesting way of looking at alien life. And interesting video.
8:15
I just imagine this is why the guy who created Marvin the martian made his smaller in proportion to earth beings.
I can't help but think that Christiaan and a few of his scientist buddies hammered this out over a few rounds of drink at the local pub
Love your channel dude!
This is so interesting! What a wonderful and unique topic for a video 😳 [I'm subscriber~ing right now]
Star Trek has a lot to answer for after hearing this.
They would've loved "Star Trek"!
I really enjoyed this. it was very interesting and i like how this person thought and explained his reasoning and ideas.
Phoenicians seem to have known America before the Vikings
That's interesting. Where did you read that?
Best video yet! You truly do have a gift of bringing the voices of the past to life.
I like how in the ad the answer is "none of them! There were already people there..." Lol very clever trick question.
Actually, a better answer is most of them. Cheng He never got to America, but the Vikings, Columbus, and the Polynesians all did so, independently, and it was a new discovery for each of their peoples.
This is an underrated channel
Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) and Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) speculated about life on other planets.
In what books?
@@Game_Hero De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the celestial orbits, 1543) and De Docta Ignorantia (1440), or On Learned Ignorance.
@@Game_Hero you could just use wikipedia
@@faeking2223 Thank you
12:00 17th century Yoshikage Kira.
Christiaan Hyugens’ Bizarre Planets
17th century Schizoid Man.
They were such a free thinker. This was incredible.
It is VERY seldom I feel pride for my countrymen. I never knew Huygens speculated about alien life. I love this early deviation from anthropocentrism. Marvelous
"Parts serving generation" I'm a have to use that line on the ladies 😂🤣
My fair lady, wouldst thou consider to lay thy hand upon my parts serving generation.
@@Maddin1313 Here Here🍻
They wouldn't understand you unless they normally dress 17h century style, which I dare you to find one outside of carnival.
@@LuisAldamiz The internet is a buffet of the abnormal my friend 😁
A wonderful lesson on the lone writer's speculations. i.e. Sophistic analysis, gone array, as we to this day have only figured out to supplement it with applied trial n error
His justifications for his claims are very interesting (and sound really funny in hindsight), and really show how far we have advanced in the humanities since the early modern period.
The humanities? Did you mean the sciences?
Jeiku This is only the justifications of one scientist on one subject. Have you read at least five other scientists from the period who talked about the same subject? One scientists’ words do not represent all of 17th century opinions.
As a casual spec evo fan I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this text and wish I had gotten to this video sooner
I know it was a mistake, but you said the Norse were half a Century before Columbus, im certain you meant half a Millennium. TY for an excellent video and reading from this archaic tone, it was a treat to hear from a scientist from that time theorizing on life on other planets in our solar system. TY again and keep up the great work!
Crazy to think how 500 years ago scientific theory was all like "anyway here's why I think there's flying monkeys on Mars"
1698: nature may have made (alien life) such as neither our understanding nor imagination could conceive
1950s: aliens are like, people, but little and grey
I was so excited to find this!
Thought provoking on so many levels.
Yes, thought provoking indeed. How wonderful to consider possible life on other planets from this learned historical perspective.
"That they have plants and animals, I think I have fully proved." Lol 😂😆
From 13:47 onward is just brilliant.
There are some pretty big gaps in this man's logic. Still cool that the seeds of space sci fi went back this far.
At least he understood the importance of the Sun unlike modern climate change theory and models that all ignore the impact of the sun on the earths climate.
We’ve regressed since then.
@@thesatisfiedcustomer4869 Scientists are much more aware of the effects of the sun on climate than Huygens would have been. They also understand how carbon dioxide, along with other greenhouse gases regulate the average global temperature. Pining for the wisdom of the past goes against everything Huygens would have believed in.
@@jasonkinzie8835 it’s exactly this blind worship of scientists, naively thinking they are impartial, that has got us into this mess.
The scientist in the white lab coat is the revered like previous generations did the priesthood,
Wise up.
There are loads of scientists who challenge the official narrative who are silenced & threatened to keep quiet.
Trust the science has become the opposite of the scientific approach which is to question and scrutinise & not just blindly believe what you are told.
You keep putting your scientists on a pedestal as they keep removing all your freedoms and rights as you squeal “ it’s science “
What a scam.
You’ve been had over kid.
Wise up.
@@thesatisfiedcustomer4869 First of all I'm 49. Second of all where are you getting your information? Give sources. And I'll do the same. Just not now.
@@jasonkinzie8835 facebook groups probably
I like the bit where he talks up hands. We stan hands in my household. Fuck yeah, hands!
A suggestion: King of Kings and the squire. It’s an account of a young noble man who goes to the Sassanid Emperor to ask for a bailout for his family, and gets quizzed on courtly arts and knowledge of all things pertaining to nobility, from the best horses to purchase to the best wine for a feast.
You left out the best part where he proves that Jupiter must have giant cannabis plantations. Because of its large amount of moons, he argues, it must have much stronger tides than the Earth and therefore an abundance of cannabis to make strong ropes for the ships.
This was a few decades before the discovery of Australia. I wonder if Australias flora and fauna have given him some pause for thought
2:06 - *"... half a millennium before Columbus."
I was wondering why you haven't uploaded any videos in the last 2 months: turns out it's 'cause youtube Unsubscribed me from your channel :(
keep up the amazing work!
The whole thing about hands tracks very closely with our contemporary knowledge of human evolution, humans evolved and upright posture and full use of our hands first, then we began to evolve greater intelligence as our hands let us make use of it
In college I took a course on the history of scientific and religious thinking about extraterrestrials. The most fascinating aspect concerned religious arguments that aliens must exist because God is infinitely good and infinitely powerful. In other words, God’s existence necessitates a universal full of beings on other worlds.
Would love to see a video focused on that.
My grandpa used to Say something similar. It would be unwise for god that it is just us.
It's odd because nowadays Christianity is threatened by the idea of alien life. I never understood how it would somehow destroy religion if we discovered aliens, not sure where they idea came from or how that gained traction.
It’s true. Some Christians since the Middle Ages like The Archbishop Nicholas of Cusa have believed that there might be other life in other planets. In his book De Docta ignorantia published in 1440, the Archbishop Nicholas of Cusa wrote that “life as it exists on earth in the form of men, animals and plants, is to be found, let us suppose in high form in the solar and stellar regions. Rather than think that so many stars and parts of the heavens are uninhabited and that this earth of ours alone is peopled - and that with being perhaps of inferior type - we will suppose that in every region there inhabitants, differing in nature and rank and all owing to their origin to God, who is the center and circumference of stellar regions.”
@@Brade If life were to be discovered within say a decade, within two decades history will show that Christianity has always claimed it to be just so. And it’s evidence shall be pointed to within the Word.
@@Brade That idea is very much related to the rise of the modern fundamentalist movement and a literary interpretation of the Bible. It kills any possibility of hexegesis and discussion. That was not a problem for early christian that didn't feel the need to react to a more secular world. It doesn't help that most christian do recieve a very simplified version of the christian theology.
10:30 Who was the ancient philosopher who placed such importance on the hands of humans?
Anaxagoras. His original writing has been lost, but Aristotle quotes him in _De Partibus Animalium._ "Anaxagoras says that man is the most intelligent of the animals because he has hands, but it would be better to say that he has hands because he is the most intelligent."
@@Tevildo Thanks. I expected Aristotle to be mentioned.
@@Tevildo NEEEEEEEEERDDD.
12:41 They live in a society
How fascinating!! 😲
Anyone else listen to Voices of the Past to fall asleep to? So Peaceful
an interesting thought experiment.
Please do more scifi takes from the past!!!
that alien turtle lion looks like a creature from Lewis Carroll's Wonderland
4:15 Over a century before Darwin, Huygens asserts something like convergent evolution. Fascinating!
Ive been wondering were do you get these stories from?
Most libraries (particularly university libraries) have access to sourcebooks, books that compile historical sources based on different time periods or themes. Another way is to simply read history books, see which historical primary source is being referenced, and then look up that source.
I find the ending here pretty interesting, where he says that it’s not credible that alien life should have all the characteristics that we have, because it’s very human-centric to think of ourselves as the peak of evolution
I love how in the end the guy only ends up describing his own lack of imagination lol