

A 19th Century Scientist Who Thought 22 Trillion Aliens Live in Our Solar System - dnetesn
http://www.wired.com/2014/12/fantastically-wrong-thomas-dick/

======
siyer
"[T]he New York Sun dropped a bombshell of a story: Astronomer Sir John
Herschel had erected an enormous telescope in South Africa that could magnify
celestial bodies an astounding 42,000 times. And when he pointed it at the
moon he saw a field of poppies."

In case anyone would like to read more about this fantastical hoax, I highly
recommend Matthew Goodman's excellent book about 19th century newspaper
hoaxes, The Sun and the Moon. It's a pretty fun book that tackles topics that
range from the relationship between religion and science in pre-Civil War
America, through to the relationship between P.T. Barnum and Edgar Allan Poe,
and the rise of cheap newspapers targeted to the mass public (perhaps the
antecedents of Buzzfeed, etc.)
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0023RSZPA](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0023RSZPA)

------
te_platt
Looks like an early version of the Drake equation, only with the number of
stars with planets very low and the probability that a planet has life very
(like really, really) high.

~~~
IndianAstronaut
The Drake equation involves making the same huge, and potentially wrong,
assumptions that Thomas Dick made.

It is good that it gets us thinking about the potential for life and drives us
to explore, but I suspect some of the calculations made at the SETI institute
and such will be completely wrong.

~~~
duaneb
The drake equation is an illustrative relationship between assumptions about
life and likelihood of it happening independently. If the assumptions are
incorrect (as they likely are), it doesn't reduce the value of illustrating
said relationship.

------
Strilanc
> Dick writes: _“This is a conclusion which is not merely probable, but
> absolutely certain, for the opposite opinion would rob the Deity of the most
> distinguishing attribute of his nature, by virtually denying him the
> perfection of infinite wisdom and intelligence.”_

> _For as bizarre as all this may seem, notice how scientific Dick was about
> his theory._

Very loose interpretation of "scientific".

~~~
pavel_lishin
It seems pretty ambitious to claim that you're wise and intelligent enough to
be able to know what an infinitely wise and intelligent thing would want.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
"Surely god would never disagree with me"

------
_almosnow
> In 1837

I'm pretty sure that in 200 years from now many of the current knowledge of
the world will be ruled out as dumb and naive. Just give the guy a break.

~~~
dang
That's a fair point. We added "19th Century" to the title.

