There are instances that a certain region or community has discoveries, and inventions that are identical. How would you explain these possibilities considering that that they never had a chance to communicate or explore each other’s work? Cite examples.
In some cases, there are identical discoveries by different regions and community although they never communicate and interact with each other, I think that it is because their observations on the environment are the same. It is possible especially if they are studying and observing the same thing.
Although they have a different perspective, they will have the same result because it is how the science works.
Just like in Mathematics, if two students used different algebraic manipulation, there is always a probability that they will have the same answer if they performed the process correctly because it is the concept of Mathematics.
As long as they are using the correct process and concept, they will get the same result.
One of the examples is the Theory of National Selection. Traditionally, when we heard the theory of natural selection, there is only one person that will come into our mind and he is none other than Charles Darwin.
He is known for his contribution to the science of evolution. However, there is also one person who is known for this discovery and he is named Alfred Russel Wallace.
He loves exploring the wildlife of South America and Asia and ended up studying natural selection and evolution. Meanwhile, Darwin was working silently for almost twenty years before he met Wallace.
Later on, they found out that they are studying the same thing independently. After finding out that they have the same discovery, Wallace decided to share some of his ideas with Darwin so he can focus and continued his travel to study the importance of biogeography.
Another example is the discovery of calculus by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, between 1664 and 1666, Isaac Newton stated that he invented the basic ideas of calculus, he also wrote two papers about calculus but didn’t publish them.
Meanwhile, Leibniz independently invented calculus in the middle of 1670 and his paper was published in the year 1684.
Additionally, in the year 1876-1877, a new invention emerged and it is called the telephone, the real inventor became a hot issue between Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray after the two of them submitted a patent application independently.
The issue is both of them submitted the application on the same day, Gray’s application arrived after few hours of Bell’s submission. This issue caught the public’s attention and charging fraudulent and dishonest conduct.
The following multiple discoveries gave controversy to the public by an accusation of copying and stealing ideas from each other. Furthermore, the experts have no evidence and proof that will say that each one of them is guilty. Until now, there is still no conclusions on who is the real person and inventor to give the credits.
To sum up, these simultaneous discoveries was believed to be made independently and purely coincidence. I believe that the scientists before has no intention of plagiarizing the concept of someone’s work and their ideas were only based on their observations and studies. Most of them were only using their skills and critical thinking to study these discoveries that will be helpful to our society.
Sources were written on the first article.
Published: September 13, 2021
Written by: Laurenceuuu
These things happen only that we do not respect other people ideas with ours, hence multiple discoveries may turn to be in isolation on the basis on were made.