Many of you may know Mike Flynn, author of many superb stories in Analog and also of Eifelheim and The January Dancer. He's an expert on culture and worldbuilding, and he shares some great insights in this article:
Random Thoughts on the White Room
Check it out!
Flynn's entry is full of errors of plain fact. As just one of several examples:
ReplyDelete"The Greeks knew that if a thing was first here and then there a certain time would have elapsed traversing the space. That is, they had to know there was such a thing as velocity. But they had no word for velocity -- or for acceleration, or other concepts associated with it. Those terms were invented in Latin Christendom."
Perhaps Flynn is not aware of the very old Greek word tachytis (velocity) which gave rise to the physics term tachyon. Also -- newsflash! -- the strong version of the Sapir Whorf hypothesis has long been disproved.
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
Feel free to discuss it with him, then. There may be nuances of which I'm not aware.
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