001 Important Questions

[speterman]

Am I the only one that questions what people were thinking as they made the first wands? Or Brooms? Or anything else for that matter? Who just woke up one morning and went "Wow, I think creating a wand would be a mighty fine thing to do?"

I mean, I guess that question kind of goes for any sort of invention, huh? I don't think I want to know what the first guy that discovered milk was thinking. This would be a thing I'd think about researching but I really don't want to end up thoroughly squicked out.

Are these seriously things no one thinks about?

Comments

[preanimator]

There's a class you might have tried paying attention in: It's called History of Magic. Shockingly, it covers a history of the magical world, including things like wands and brooms.

[speterman]

What's that? I wasn't asking about historical matters? Nuh-uh, no way!? There's no way I was actually asking what was going on through these people's heads which doesn't really relate to History of Magic that much? No way.

[preanimator]

You might find some key to their motivations if you did the reading, but you would also probably know that there was no 'first person'. Neither the wand, nor the broom, were the invention of a single person. It isn't as though Mr. Richard Wand just spontaneously decided one day to carve a bit of wood into some interesting shape and try to channel magic through it.

[speterman]

So if there wasn't a person that decided "I'm going to carve up a bit of wood and try to channel some magic through it CHEERS." Then how does it exist now? There had to be a person that had this thought process at some point.

[doctorkishitani]

I think that whoever made the first wands probably did by accident. Maybe they happened to be doing something else with unicorn hair or dragon heartsrings and discovered that those substances served as a sort of conductor for their magical energy.

I'm not sure though. I'm not especially good in History of Magic.

[speterman]

Good point. But that doesn't explain the milk thing.

[doctorkishitani]

No. It doesn't.

[pause]

Now that I'm thinking on it, I'm not sure I can explain the milk thing either. In fact, I think I remember reading that humans are the only creatures who drink milk from other animals.

[speterman]

...Oh my god.

I think I'm going to be sick.

[eighttimeshandy]

I don't think they really discovered milk itself. I mean, humans produce breast milk naturally, and as we're evolved from apes, breast feeding our young would have been a habit carried over from instinct. Of course, in recent days such a thing has become a taboo, probably starting around the Victorian era as even being pregnant was considered a thing ladies were expected to hide.

Which explains why you have the attitude that milk and it's "discovery" is gross.

Although, if you're talking about cow's milk, I would assume some form of bestiality would be involved. It was actually not an uncommon thing in the dark ages.

[speterman]

I was speaking of cow's milk.

No...

You really think it was bestiality?

...

No...

Minging.

[eighttimeshandy]

Well, it's a possibility? I don't know, what would prompt you to drink the frothy white excretions of a large herd animal?

Aside from the fact that everything is pasteurized and processed these days, anyway.

[speterman]

That's what I'm saying! Who just thinks this stuff up. I mean, they might have been an intelligent person and figured, mother's milk is okay for calves...

I wouldn't! There are certain animals that the consumption of their milk is dangerous to humans.

[actuallyspeakslatin]

[brothor]

Is it not because of tree lore? Father taught me that different trees represent different traits.

As for milk, I do not think you want to go there. Desperate times call for desperate measures, as you know!

[speterman]

No, that's not what I'm saying. Like, for example, what if I woke up one day and said, "Hey, I wanna climb walls, no one climbs walls all that great without magic or something! So I'm totally going to create some sort of THING that slings webs that I can use to climb stuff, just like a spider!" Why do my thought patters connect a possible way to climb walls to spiders and not frogs or ants or anything else? Couldn't both do it? Why did they decide a wand would be better fit than well, anything? Not only that, where down the line did I decide that it's a thing worth while? Plenty of people think a lot of stupid stuff up that they don't bother trying... And some, the snuggie, do.

I'm talking about psychology, thought patters. Things could be a lot different just depending on the way people think.

.....

And no, I think you're right, I really do not want to go there.

[greenteengenius]

So you do not know how the scientific method works.

[speterman]

. . .

[SOMEONE IS GETTING FRUSTRATED]

Explain the scientific method in your own words and I'll point out the problem here.

[greenteengenius]

[Lyrl has that effect on people.]

Think of a question, think of a possible answer, predict what might result, test said answer against a control, and then analyze the results as compared to the prediction.

[donutsanddestiny]

It is an interesting to think about, with any invention.

[speterman]

I know! People can be so strange at times.

[donutsanddestiny]

It's something universal, too. I find myself wondering about muggle and wizard inventions.

[speterman]

Believe me, we all do, well, those of us that actually think to question thought processes and the like...

No-one ever really wonders about things. We just accept the answers that answered the questions in the past.

[Megamind come to Spidey, biffles-y time.]

[arrogantalloy]

You found caffine, didn't you? Sounds like someone's on a java high.

[speterman]

Come on, you really don't question these things?

[arrogantalloy]

I try to avoid living in the past.