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‘Seven Sisters’ Myths May Reach Back 100k Years

singularityhub.com

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Re: ‘Seven Sisters’ Myths May Reach Back 100k Years

#41

Post by ramraj07 »

mellosouls wrote: post #27

It's a nice theory but sometimes simpler, less glamorous solutions might hold the truth. There are more than 6 "sisters" visible with the naked eye, but most people normally can't see them. It's more believable to me that the "missing" 7th sister is just the brightest of the less visible ones. Those less visible would certainly have been used as a test of prowess for determining the keenest-eyed, especially among ear…

If true then at least one of the stories should sound in that vein right?

Let's consider your rule itself, though first modifying it to the real occams razor which says the simplest answer is probably the real one. Simple is probably more measurable than glamor anyway! So what's the simpler of the two explanations? A complex variation of the story as we now know independently arose in multiple cultures and then everyone forgot the same detail (find the seventh star it's still there), or we've been carrying this story with us since the beginning of humanity? Honestly the later sounds simpler to me. It's breathtaking but sounds entirely plausible so why not?

Re: ‘Seven Sisters’ Myths May Reach Back 100k Years

#43

Post by Jabbles »

cmroanirgo wrote: post #40
timkam wrote: post #10

I must say the Singularity Hub web presence looks snake-oily to me. Why do they call it a "university"? Why do they call some of the members "faculty"? Why do they claim Ray Kurzweil has "a thirty-year track record of accurate predictions"? ( https://singularityhub.com/experts/ ) Any idea why they brand it like this? Who is supposed to take this seriously? I'm EU-based and here you're not allowed to claim that your o…

Diversion aside, the article is a publication by one Ray Norris, who works in the Astro physics department at CSIRO, Australia's Government funded science org, and also is a Professor for Western Sydney University. I've met him and listened to his public lectures at Macquarie University. He has been researching Aboriginal Australian Astronomy for decades and is well published in the arena. He and his wife have travel…

Did that elder offer some proof that they had significantly better eyes than most humans? Because the generally accepted number of visible stars is ~5000 in each hemisphere.

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-blogs/how-many-stars-n...

Re: ‘Seven Sisters’ Myths May Reach Back 100k Years

#44

Post by sundarurfriend »

This reminded me of a theory came up with as a teenager, that the Vaanaraas of Ramayana (a group to which the famous "monkey god" Hanuman belongs) may actually be an early hominid that had ape-like features, that lived in parallel with humans in different territory. They were intelligent enough to help the human princes in their quest, which got them a place in their story - a story which went on to become an oral tradition, and got embellished with time to become the Ramayana. If, as proposed here, stories can be orally passed down for tens of thousands of years, that makes it slightly more likely that this outlandish theory actually has some merit to it.

Re: ‘Seven Sisters’ Myths May Reach Back 100k Years

#46

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

neiman wrote: post #34
timkam wrote: post #10

I must say the Singularity Hub web presence looks snake-oily to me. Why do they call it a "university"? Why do they call some of the members "faculty"? Why do they claim Ray Kurzweil has "a thirty-year track record of accurate predictions"? ( https://singularityhub.com/experts/ ) Any idea why they brand it like this? Who is supposed to take this seriously? I'm EU-based and here you're not allowed to claim that your o…

I also live in the EU, but the EU did not invented universities, and hence whichever bureaucratic definition it made up, shouldn't be used as a measure for universities outside the EU.

Universities were invented in medieval Europe and, to my knowledge, they were always supported by ruling authorities, be them kings, emperors or popes, who granted them their legitimacy.

Of course a sovereign country can define (or refrain from defining) a university in any way they like, but the historical argument really doesn't help much there. The historical notion of a university is very much tied to ruling powers.

Re: ‘Seven Sisters’ Myths May Reach Back 100k Years

#47

Post by josefx »

gostsamo wrote: post #36
bencollier49 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the idea of the 100,000 years of memory is plausible, but I think it's likely to persist because the number seven seems to be universally important to humans. People could potentially have superimposed the number seven on the story, as per the rainbow's seven colours and Newton.

Since when is 7 important though? The species didn't have much of a math up until 5000-10000 years ago.

That is an interesting claim, the wikipedia articles about the history of math claim that the earliest written examples are from 3000 BCE. Finding a written record older is rather unlikely since that corresponds roughly to the oldest written texts in general. We do however have evidence of tally marks that date back to 35000 BCE[1] with one use possibly being a lunar calendar.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tally_marks

Re: ‘Seven Sisters’ Myths May Reach Back 100k Years

#48

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

timkam wrote: post #10

I must say the Singularity Hub web presence looks snake-oily to me. Why do they call it a "university"? Why do they call some of the members "faculty"? Why do they claim Ray Kurzweil has "a thirty-year track record of accurate predictions"? ( https://singularityhub.com/experts/ ) Any idea why they brand it like this? Who is supposed to take this seriously? I'm EU-based and here you're not allowed to claim that your o…

I know nothing at all about this, so cannot comment on the Singularity University, but in the US, it’s actually fairly common to attach the word “university” to all sorts of training series. My old company’s HR added “university” to their regular internal training series (complete with a “certificate” that we would get after each mandatory class).

I took seminars throughout my career, and a number were dubbed “university” (Like Apple’s famous —and long-defunct— “Developer University” —DU. I still have the certificates they gave me).

Personally, I find it potentially misleading, but seldom actually nefarious. It does dilute the cachet of the word, though.

Re: ‘Seven Sisters’ Myths May Reach Back 100k Years

#49

Post by akdor1154 »

Jabbles wrote: post #43
cmroanirgo wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Diversion aside, the article is a publication by one Ray Norris, who works in the Astro physics department at CSIRO, Australia's Government funded science org, and also is a Professor for Western Sydney University. I've met him and listened to his public lectures at Macquarie University. He has been researching Aboriginal Australian Astronomy for decades and is well published in the arena. He and his wife have travel…

Did that elder offer some proof that they had significantly better eyes than most humans? Because the generally accepted number of visible stars is ~5000 in each hemisphere. https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-blogs/how-many-stars-n...

I have read that some indigenous Australians had/have ridiculously good vision, by western standards. (Brb googling :)

Edit: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-08/prince-harry-may-stru... (popsci but generally reliable journalism)

Re: ‘Seven Sisters’ Myths May Reach Back 100k Years

#50

Post by mellosouls »

russellallen wrote: post #20
timkam wrote: post #10

I must say the Singularity Hub web presence looks snake-oily to me. Why do they call it a "university"? Why do they call some of the members "faculty"? Why do they claim Ray Kurzweil has "a thirty-year track record of accurate predictions"? ( https://singularityhub.com/experts/ ) Any idea why they brand it like this? Who is supposed to take this seriously? I'm EU-based and here you're not allowed to claim that your o…

I don't know anything about the Singularity Hub, but this article is just a repost of a Creative Commons licensed article from The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-oldest-story-astronom... Ideally this story should be changed to this URL which has further comments by the author attached to it. Also The Conversation is a legitimate Australian academic site.

This is the correct link, but unfortunately The Conversation often features on HN only by proxy via reposts of its articles.
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