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54 replies

lemmy.ml

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, "Morning, boys. How’s the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, "What the hell is water?"

— David Foster Wallace, This is Water

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5765313496reply
lemmy.world

Yeah, but would you be aware if you hadn't learned about it in school?

Oh wait. Fish spend lots of time in school. Dang.

81
feddit.org

There are lots of effects you cannot explain without air. Even if you haven't been to school, you can observe wind, use a hairdryer, blow up balloons, fly a drone etc.

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sh.itjust.works

And "air" as a word dates back to both Latin and Greek "aer", probably from proto-Indo-European "awer" so it's pretty much been the same word in European since civilization was a thing.

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feddit.org

in European

Oh yes, my favourite language. It's "vzduch" or similar in most Slavic languages, and I'd bet you're not pronouncing it right.

9

I vaguely recall reading about people not knowing the science of wind and air. They explain trees swaying in the wind as spirits.

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Rolandoreply
lemmy.world

“Fish forget they live in water; people forget they live in the Tao” -Confucius?

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You are moments away from either being slaughtered by space clowns or whipped into the air by bondage bird men. Best case, some tall motherfuckers may just toss you into space.

Someone will like it no matter what.

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sh.itjust.works

I think the saying about fish not being aware of water is nonsense. People are aware that there's air around them, without having to know any science. They can feel the wind, their own breath, etc. Fish have that plus they need to push against water in order to move. A fish that didn't know what water was would be like a land animal that didn't know what the ground was.

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Krackalotreply
discuss.tchncs.de

I think you underestimate our past ignorance. It took many decades of science being taught for the general population to "know" that air exists.

29

I think the general population always knew that there was a transparent substance all around them which had to keep going in and out of their lungs or they would die - the "breath of life" from the Bible. I mean, even an uneducated peasant in ancient times could blow bubbles underwater and see that there was something coming out of his mouth.

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lemmy.world

I'm not entirely sure if a fish would actually know what water is lmao

The FOOLS fall for little pieces of plastic with metal in them, so there's no way they know what water is

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sh.itjust.works

No, that means we have transcended the petty limitations of biological sexuality. We are like gods.

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Wasn't Davinci one of the first to think about air that way? Welll, maybe aside from some ancient greek philosophers.

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The idea was first documented in a memo that Metcalfe wrote on May 22, 1973, where he named it after the luminiferous aether once postulated to exist as an "omnipresent, completely passive medium for the propagation of electromagnetic waves."

Hmm, I really thought there would be some clever name I didn't understand, but it really is that aether.

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lemmy.world

How many ways can we rewrite the allegory of the cave?

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mander.xyz

Stupid seahorse can form complex sentences but can't analyze the water around him like some kinda simple animal!!

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lemm.ee

I have a friend who believes in magic, and that we can't see it for the same reason this sea horse is confused about the ocean

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Why would you think that? It literally reacted to what the guy said about water.

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lemmy.world

You want a shower thought? H2O is just another gas, compressed. We live in the ocean too, just the upper part with lighter gases.

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Do I look like a scientist to you? I can barely keep from falling into the lower ocean.

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