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JoshuaZ comments on Do Earths with slower economic growth have a better chance at FAI? - Less Wrong Discussion

30 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 12 June 2013 07:54PM

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Comment author: JoshuaZ 13 June 2013 06:20:25PM *  3 points [-]

Neither Newton nor Liebniz invented calculus single-handedly as is often described. There was a lot of precursor work. Newton for example credited the idea of the derivative to Fermat's prior work on drawing tangent lines (which itself was a generalization of ancient Greek ideas about tangents for conic sections). Others also discussed similar notions before Newton and Liebniz such as the mean speed theorem. After both of them, a lot of work still needed to be done to make calculus useful. The sections of calculus which Newton and Liebniz did is only about half of what is covered in a normal into calc class today.

A better example might be Shannon's development of information theory which really did have almost no precursors and did leap from his brow fully formed like Athena.