NotShey t1_j0zi47v wrote on December 20, 2022 at 4:00 PM

Reply to comment by zendonium in How realistic is “The future of” on Netflix? by alakeya

>We universally acknowledged there was only 1 planet less than 100 years ago.. it means nothing that something is 'universally acknowledged'.

This is just flat out wrong and shows a deeply flawed understanding of the history of astronomy. Mars has been well understood to be a rocky planet since at least the 1600s.

zendonium t1_j0ziqyo wrote on December 20, 2022 at 4:04 PM

Sorry, I meant no other planets outside our system.

NotShey t1_j0zla79 wrote on December 20, 2022 at 4:21 PM

Not having the technology to detect exoplanets doesn't mean people thought they didn't exist. They were postulated since at least the 1500s, and people were actively looking for them over a hundred years ago (even if the tech to find them wasn't quite there yet).

We've had a pretty good feel for the structure of the macro world for a lot longer than I think you are giving people credit for.

zendonium t1_j0zp9hf wrote on December 20, 2022 at 4:47 PM

Postulated by a few yes, but universal consensus was unsure if they even existed.

cafffaro t1_j0zrkqk wrote on December 20, 2022 at 5:02 PM

I think it’s important to acknowledge that universal consensus also means something different today. We have the peer review process, which is objectively a sounder way of determining the validity of claims (compared to “the Pope agrees” or whatever). There’s a reason people like Hancock avoid submitting their claims to peer review.