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Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?

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Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?

#91

Post by jonny_eh »

ThePhysicist wrote: post #42

Many women published research under pseudonyms in the past, for example Sophie Germain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Germain So I'd argue that many past inventions that are credited to men might actually have been achieved by women scientists publishing under their husbands / colleagues / friends name as a pseudonym. In Paris I once saw an original print of Marie Curie's book on radioactivity, where her name…

JK Rowling published the first Harry Potter book using her initials to hide her gender, which was recommended by her publisher. She could go back on that, but it's too late now that she's known by it.

Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?

#92

Post by jonny_eh »

philwelch wrote: post #86

Fire. Think about it, nobody knows who invented the ability to control fire, and yet it is still, by far, the most important technology in our lives. The largest economic sector is oil and gas, in other words, finding things to set on fire. All of our technology is powered by electricity, which is still predominantly generated by setting things on fire. Rockets are powered by fire. Guns are powered by fire. Cars are…

That's true of any prehistoric invention. Same goes for the wheel, the flint axe, the spear, and the bow + arrow.

Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?

#93

Post by vbuwivbiu »

philwelch wrote: post #86

Fire. Think about it, nobody knows who invented the ability to control fire, and yet it is still, by far, the most important technology in our lives. The largest economic sector is oil and gas, in other words, finding things to set on fire. All of our technology is powered by electricity, which is still predominantly generated by setting things on fire. Rockets are powered by fire. Guns are powered by fire. Cars are…

fire (deliberate control of) was discovered by birds and later copied by humans

Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?

#94

Post by [deleted] »

piaste wrote: post #84
ThePhysicist wrote: post #42

Many women published research under pseudonyms in the past, for example Sophie Germain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Germain So I'd argue that many past inventions that are credited to men might actually have been achieved by women scientists publishing under their husbands / colleagues / friends name as a pseudonym. In Paris I once saw an original print of Marie Curie's book on radioactivity, where her name…

> In Paris I once saw an original print of Marie Curie's book on radioactivity, where her name is given as "Mme Pierre Curie". This probably shows how difficult it was even then to get something published under your own name as a woman Nothing to do with publishing difficulties at all. It was simply the way a married French woman would be addressed at the time - as "Madame [husband's full name]", eg Michelle Obama wo…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?

#95

Post by vbrandl »

Many techniques to make binary analysis harder came from anonymous malware authors. In the early days, writing viruses was more of an educational game than infecting people to cause harm. I'm thinking about poly- or metamorphic code that is able to change it's own representation without changing the actual logic.

Also many phrack articles are released under pseudonyms.

Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?

#96

Post by jnicholasp »

vbuwivbiu wrote: post #93
philwelch wrote: post #86

Fire. Think about it, nobody knows who invented the ability to control fire, and yet it is still, by far, the most important technology in our lives. The largest economic sector is oil and gas, in other words, finding things to set on fire. All of our technology is powered by electricity, which is still predominantly generated by setting things on fire. Rockets are powered by fire. Guns are powered by fire. Cars are…

fire (deliberate control of) was discovered by birds and later copied by humans

Birds? Source?

Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?

#99

Post by philwelch »

jonny_eh wrote: post #92
philwelch wrote: post #86

Fire. Think about it, nobody knows who invented the ability to control fire, and yet it is still, by far, the most important technology in our lives. The largest economic sector is oil and gas, in other words, finding things to set on fire. All of our technology is powered by electricity, which is still predominantly generated by setting things on fire. Rockets are powered by fire. Guns are powered by fire. Cars are…

That's true of any prehistoric invention. Same goes for the wheel, the flint axe, the spear, and the bow + arrow.

All of these were probably also invented independently by multiple people, because whenever one human culture has made first contact with another human culture, they typically have many of these things already.

For example, the inhabitants of North Sentinel Island, one of the last uncontacted peoples in the world, have bows and arrows. Also, they tend to use those bows to shoot arrows at everyone who attempts to approach North Sentinel Island, which is why they remain one of the last uncontacted peoples in the world. Other examples include American Indians, some of whom, like the Comanche, were able to use bows effectively enough to consistently defeat Westerners well into the 19th century.

It's also interesting that not all of these inventions are universal--for example, the Inca civilization did not have wheels, because the Andes are too rugged for wheeled transportation to make sense. But they had lots of other things and fairly advanced mathematics, which was important because they had a relatively advanced mercantile culture where goods were traded by means of pack animal.

Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?

#100

Post by philwelch »

jnicholasp wrote: post #96
vbuwivbiu wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

fire (deliberate control of) was discovered by birds and later copied by humans

Birds? Source?

I would also like to see a source, but judging from all the stories I've read about crows, I wouldn't doubt it.
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