Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Best (incorrect) logic ever!

This article about when humans figured out that sex makes babies contains my favourite piece of logic ever:
[...] anthropologists studying the same group [of Trobriand Islanders] learned that semen was believed to be necessary for the “coagulation” of menstrual blood, the stoppage of which was thought to eventually form the fetus.
I absolutely love how, even though that's incorrect, it's still a completely logical conclusion to draw from available evidence.  And, even though their understanding of the processes was wrong, any actions they might take based on this conclusion will still be correct (i.e. if you want to make a baby, have sex).

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