# Snobbery of chronology...can't believe people used to believe that **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 27, 2013, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snobbery-of-chronology-cant-believe-people-used-to-believe-that/672367 "2013-10-27T12:18:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snobbery-of-chronology-cant-believe-people-used-to-believe-that/672367/21 "2013-10-27T17:21:42Z")
What was the big fuss over [del]interracial[/del] same sex marriage? ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snobbery-of-chronology-cant-believe-people-used-to-believe-that/672367/22 "2013-10-27T19:47:12Z")
I am inclined to believe people performing surgeries always washed their hands, afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snobbery-of-chronology-cant-believe-people-used-to-believe-that/672367/23 "2013-10-27T19:53:36Z")
[Reminds me of that scene in Star Trek IV](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3SpPgkHaZc) ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snobbery-of-chronology-cant-believe-people-used-to-believe-that/672367/24 "2013-10-27T19:54:09Z")
> [@grude](#): > > This one bugs me too, people had to realize dirt=infection even without knowing about bacteria. > > Take a clean blade and cut a living pig, now take a blade smeared with slime from a sewage canal and cut a living pig. Which one got infected? Repeat several hundred times, any pattern emerging? You do understand that the scientific method is also a new idea? Your advice is a little like saying “They could have just looked it up on Google.” You can’t use a tool that doesn’t exist yet to learn an idea that doesn’t exist yet. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snobbery-of-chronology-cant-believe-people-used-to-believe-that/672367/25 "2013-10-27T20:34:13Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > I am inclined to believe people performing surgeries always washed their hands, afterwards. [Oh really?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semmelweis#Discovery_of_cadaverous_poisoning) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snobbery-of-chronology-cant-believe-people-used-to-believe-that/672367/26 "2013-10-27T21:33:02Z")
I can’t believe someone back in 2013 would start a thread that had already been done so many times! Today, we’d know better, with our genetically-engineered brains. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snobbery-of-chronology-cant-believe-people-used-to-believe-that/672367/27 "2013-10-27T22:36:29Z")
“Heh, man made climate change. Fools, it was the aliens changing the climate all along!” ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snobbery-of-chronology-cant-believe-people-used-to-believe-that/672367/28 "2013-10-27T22:45:01Z")
Beware the beast Man, for he is the Devil’s pawn. Alone among God’s primates, he kills for sport or lust or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother’s land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snobbery-of-chronology-cant-believe-people-used-to-believe-that/672367/29 "2013-10-27T23:41:47Z")
[Menstruation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Even_the_Queen). “Women used to _what_ every month?!” > [@Smeghead](#): > > Ah, this is going to quickly devolve into one of those “people who disagree with me on various controversies are clearly idiots” threads. > [@knel3030](#): > > I disagree. Therefore you are clearly an idiot. 😃 **Mark Twain** : “The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.” ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snobbery-of-chronology-cant-believe-people-used-to-believe-that/672367/30 "2013-10-27T23:43:42Z")
Of course, there’s the oft-made observation that hundreds of years from now, people will look back at our psychologists and psychiatrists the way we look at physicians and surgeons of the middle ages. ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snobbery-of-chronology-cant-believe-people-used-to-believe-that/672367/31 "2013-10-28T00:14:44Z")
> [@knel3030](#): > > What might people in the year 2500 say about us and our primitive beliefs and practices? “Why did they build 50,000 plutonium bombs, and never use a single one for space travel?” > [@knel3030](#): > > Absurdity welcome. That is not going to be a problem. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snobbery-of-chronology-cant-believe-people-used-to-believe-that/672367/32 "2013-10-28T00:27:11Z")
But remember, we cannot blame them for being so backward, since no one worked out how to communicate with termites until the mid-2300s. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snobbery-of-chronology-cant-believe-people-used-to-believe-that/672367/33 "2013-10-28T00:43:50Z")
On germ theory, there was Ignaz Semmelweis. He was a medical pioneer who figured out that there was a connection between not washing your hands between patients and patients getting sick. He didn’t invent germ theory, per se, because he didn’t identify the mechanism of this transmission. He spotted it as a statistical connection. Tragically, the medical establishment of Semmelweis’ era rejected this theory. Years later, other scientists like Pasteur would identify germs as the means of transmitting diseases and doctors would realize the importance of washing before and after contact with sick people. And people would rediscover Semmelweis’ work and he would be posthumously vindicated. But were not talking centuries of ignorance. The antiseptic theory was generally accepted within about fifteen years of when it was first proposed. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snobbery-of-chronology-cant-believe-people-used-to-believe-that/672367/34 "2013-10-28T01:14:57Z")
Y’know, it occurred to me after the last thread about pre-germ theory doctors: There is at least one example of a doctor from antiquity who _did_ know of good advice. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, related by Luke the physician, the Samaritan washes the traveler’s wounds with wine. Now, they might not have known why wine was good for washing wounds, but it really is the best thing they could have done with the technology of the time. One wonders when, between the time of Luke and the dark ages, this knowledge was lost. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snobbery-of-chronology-cant-believe-people-used-to-believe-that/672367/35 "2013-10-28T01:31:14Z")
How quaint it was in the 21st - people actually had to ask questions on “Message Boards” rather than querying their knowlege implant. Now we get an answer rather than just endless opinions. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snobbery-of-chronology-cant-believe-people-used-to-believe-that/672367/36 "2013-10-28T02:00:38Z")
Can you believe they used to think they were the most intelligent species on the planet? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snobbery-of-chronology-cant-believe-people-used-to-believe-that/672367/37 "2013-10-28T03:02:28Z")
Wait. They inhaled poisons into their lungs, voluntarily? For recreation?? ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snobbery-of-chronology-cant-believe-people-used-to-believe-that/672367/38 "2013-10-28T03:21:02Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Of course, there’s the oft-made observation that hundreds of years from now, people will look back at our psychologists and psychiatrists the way we look at physicians and surgeons of the middle ages. You really think that this only applies to the psychologists and psychiatrists, do you? :dubious: One thing is very clear to me, those people who single out psychology and psychiatry for their especial disdain, invariably know absolutely zip about any developments in those fields since about 1950 (and often know zip at all, except maybe some garbled fragment of Freud). I am not saying current theories probably will not look quaint and primitive in 2500 (if a civilization able to support scientific progress till exists by then), but the same probably applies to much of modern physics – I mean, come on! quantum superposition? a big bang? cosmic inflation? dark energy? Higgs bosons? strings? That is all pretty wild and fanciful stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snobbery-of-chronology-cant-believe-people-used-to-believe-that/672367/39 "2013-10-28T04:33:01Z")
“What? They _actually died_ if something happened to their bodies? They didn’t even have one backup mindstate copy?!” ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snobbery-of-chronology-cant-believe-people-used-to-believe-that/672367/40 "2013-10-28T06:50:58Z")
To be honest I think the year 2500 is incomprehensibly far away and it is simply not possible for us to look that far ahead. Perhaps the year 2100 is more reasonable. Already we are close to immortality through the reading of our DNA. All that is necessary is to pinpoint the aging genes and switch them off, plus correct those genes which select for genetic diseases. There is every likelihood that will occur in the next 80 years. It is possible that our children will be the last new humans and they will live indefinitely. Then there is the likely merging of man and machine with nanobots and kevlar-like skins to protect the mortal coil. It is but a short step from there to uploading our minds into machines which will be removed from the need for organic food and exist on electrons and photons. The Universe will be wide open. I don’t think there will be any people in the normal organic sense by the year 2500 and Earth may have become a mystical legendary memory. The mother planet somewhere out in the arm of a spiral galaxy but noone has been there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snobbery-of-chronology-cant-believe-people-used-to-believe-that/672367.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snobbery-of-chronology-cant-believe-people-used-to-believe-that/672367.md?page=3)