1)
The Piltdown hoax began in the early 1900’s,
when a piece of a skull was found by a man at a digging site and gave it to
Charles Dawson. The skull piece was found in a digging site in Barkham near
Piltdown. This would have been the first “early man” found in Britain, so this
was a really big discovery. It also would have showed that humans developed a
big brain before we learned to walk upright. The scientific community would go
on believing this to be true for the next forty years. The hoax was revealed
forty years later when a man named Kenneth Oakley performed a chemical test on
the skull to authenticate and date the bone. The jaw piece was found to not be
as old as they originally thought, and that it in fact wasn’t even human. The
teeth were filed down to look human, and the bone had been boiled and dyed to
look older. This was a huge upset to the scientific community, because many had
based their entire careers off the findings from the Piltdown findings.
2)
As humans we all have faults, often times these
faults involve greed or pride. In the case of the Piltdown Man, the scientists
were blinded by their own ambition, pride, and greed. They wanted to take
credit for finding the first early man in Great Britain, because the French and
Germans already had fossil remains of early humans. They took pride in finding
the first human to show that we as a species developed our big brains before we
walked upright, which until this finding the opposite was believed. If the
scientists would have been able to put their pride aside, they would have
possibly been more likely to see the faults in the piece of bone.
3)
From the beginning, there were always people who
were skeptical of the Piltdown Man and if it was real or not. As time went on,
more and more people in other countries became skeptical about the authenticity
of the fossil, which had been believed as real for the past forty years. The
scientists began asking more questions regarding the fossilized jaw bone. In
1953, the jaw bone was chemically tested to reveal the origin of the bone and
how old it really was. Turns out they got the answer to the forty year long
hoax. The jaw bone was not human and it wasn’t as old as they had thought it to
be.
4)
The only way the “human” factor could be removed
from science is to replace all the humans with robots. If this were to happen,
science would lose all the passion and creativity behind it. In order to make
advances in science, there must be a human mind behind the creation of the idea
because the human mind is capable of dreaming about things which seem to be
impossible.
5)
From this it is easy to take away that in order
to say you believe something to be true, you must actually investigate that
idea or object yourself first. If you believe something because someone tells
you it’s true, and you never investigate yourself, things like the Piltdown hoax
will occur.
You made a very good point that th only way to remove the "human" factor is to replace them with robots. I agree that the human mind is capable of being creative while a computer does only what we tell it to do. Great point!
ReplyDeleteOverall, very good synopsis, particularly identifying how this supported the idea that larger brains evolved early human evolutionary history. That idea didn't really hold up for forty years, however. Other finds in other locations (Africa, China, Eastern Europe) all contradicted this idea, which raised red flags for Piltdown and encouraged scientists to test and retest its validity.
ReplyDeleteGood discussion on the issue of human faults. They faults you describe apply equally to the perpetrators and the scientists who seemed to accept this discovery so readily with none of the necessary skepticism.
Can you be more specific on the chemical test that uncovered the hoax? Otherwise, good discussion on not only the technology but the thought process that led to it being revealed as a fake.
Very good discussion on this issue of the human factor. I agree.
Good life lesson. Other than a minor point here and there, good post.
I love that you brought up the passion and creativity that humans bring to science. This is so important to remember, because science does not start with black and white ideas, it is a process of thoughts and tests that lead up to the facts of science. I do not believe that any computer could fully feel the emotions and thoughts the way we can as humans.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting that you put in greed and pride as the human fault. I agree although I was not thinking about these as faults until I read your post. It helped me think more about what and why they made this hoax or who ever made the hoax. I think greed is one of the top faults that was occurring during this time period.
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