Will they end up repeating history?

Question

If a person decides to drop out of school and to go out and discover things on his/her own (without reading any books on past discoveries) will that person be successful on discovering something new? This person is motivated by knowing that each person has his/her way of seeing things and thus feels that they can do a lot better then what scientists in the past have discovered. Will they end up reinventing the wheel and how?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Can anyone be genius enough to discover by himself during his life (which is very inconsiderable comparing with science history) what scientists have achieved during centuries.

If you mean to get rid of all theories and principles of science and begin from zero ,then you are wrong maybe you're annoyed because school is coming soon and this is normal.

But if you mean you want to study what you want without the pressure of studying at school , homework and waking up early then I agree with you.

Answer 2

you somewhat right in that if we use the type of knowledge used by scientists before,we may not think of making modern types of old things like cars ,computers,...but we know this is also wrong because by years we have made new discoveries ,new cars,better games...(I know this example doesn't support me,but just to show u).

    But if we don't follow the old ideas,then civilization would be slow because we would be thinking of making something other ppl had already made instead of discovering more.(like if we thought of making new cars ,then maybe we would not have made rockets an jets.

    You inderstand me?but really u right,but still wrong.

Answer 3

In the 16th and 17th century you could discover things that way, because there was a lot to be discovered in science. But even then, you had to spend time reading what was known on a topic.

Now, with 90 - 99 % discovered (my guess, depends on topic), what is left is very subtle, and very dependent on everything that has gone before.

An example.

In the 17th century you could invent a suspension for a carriage that would be better than anything previous, because there were no suspensions other than leather straps. Now, there are dozens of books written about suspension design, and the various subtle differences. There are computer programs just to calculate what the effect would be if you stiffened one spring a little.

So if you quit school with the idea of designing a better suspension, you would get nowhere. Even if you read all the books, you still need lots of money, a lab, a machine shop to test your ideas.

A better example, power sources. There are many types of water wheels around in the 18th century. If you lived then, you could easily invent a new one that worked better than the others. All you would need is a supply of lumber, and a stream.

Now if you wanted to improve an existing power source, such as solar photovoltaic cells, you need an advanced degree in IC technology and lots of years of experience, and the backing of a company with lots of money.

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