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Lucio Russo

Lucio Russo Biography

Physicist

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“Unfortunately, the optimistic view that "classical civilization" handed down certain fundamental works that managed to include the knowledge contained in the lost writings has proved groundless. In fact, in the face of a general regression in the level of civilization, it's never the best works that will be saved through an automatic process of natural selection.”

WritingFactsFacesCertainLostProcessNaturalLevelsViewsCivilizationFundamentalsSavedOptimisticSelectionBest WorkNatural SelectionRegression
Book:The Forgotten Revolution: How Science Was Born in 300 BC and Why it Had to Be Reborn
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“Since UFO stands for "unidentified flying object", the word ufology means approximately "knowledge about unknown flying objects", and is therefore a "science" whose content is void by definition. Similar considerations hold for parapsychology.”

MeanObjectsDefinitionsFlyingConsiderationVoidUfoParapsychology
Book:The Forgotten Revolution: How Science Was Born in 300 BC and Why it Had to Be Reborn
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“Many scholars have felt that the Heronian passage [on a pipe-organ moved by an anemourion-like wheel] can be disregarded because it is not confirmed by other writings. Heron presumably mentioned the anemourion in a moment of distraction, forgetting that it had not been invented yet. We know that he was given to such lapses.”

KnowsWritingMomentsGivenFeltForgetMovedWheelsPassagesDistractionScholarOrgansPipeLapsesDisregardedHeronsPipe Organs
Author:Lucio Russo
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“From semantics to shipbuilding, from dream theory to propositional logic, any specialist ... is invariably astonished to discover that modern knowledge was foreshadowed at the time. ... Should we not replace these foreshadowings by the study of the influences of Hellenistic thought on modern thought?”

ShouldDreamStudyInfluenceModernTheoryLogicSpecialistsSemanticsForeshadowing
Book:The Forgotten Revolution: How Science Was Born in 300 BC and Why it Had to Be Reborn
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“The age-long history of thinking on gravitation, too, was erased from the collective consciousness, and that force somehow became the serendipitous child of Newton's genius. The new attitude is well illustrated by the anecdote of the apple, a legend spread by Voltaire, one of the most active and vehement erasers of the past. ... The need to build the myth of an ex nihilo creation of modern science gave rise to much impassioned rhetoric.”

ThinkingNeedsWellsChildrenLongAgePastForceConsciousnessAttitudeModernCreationGeniusSpreadActiveMythApplesCollectivesLegendsRhetoricExesNewtonModern ScienceAnecdotesGravitationCollective ConsciousnessErasersImpassionedVehementNew Attitude
Author:Lucio Russo
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