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Comment by ncmncm | Hacker News Reader

Hint: Columbus didn't discover America. Millions of people already lived there, and knew all about it.

But anyway looking for Dyson spheres will not reveal any extraterrestrial civilizations.

A discovery doesn't have to imply that no living being knew about said thing/ place. It can imply only that the person or the group of people the person is from learns about this new thing. At some point in time nobody in Europe had definite proof of how to get to America. You can call "europeans learning how to get to America" something else other than "discovered America", but what phrasing should one use instead?

To make the point, literally nothing can be classified as "discovered" under your rules because any alien civilization may know about everything we'll ever find or figure out, and if they know about it we can't have discovered it.

Columbus was a murderer and people in America before he got there deserved way better but this type of nitpicking correction is just noise if you don't even say what is a more appropriate phrase.

Are you saying that, even if extraterrestrial civilizations existed, looking for Dyson spheres wouldn't reveal them? Or are you saying that they don't exist, so nothing will reveal them? In either case, why?

Looking for Dyson spheres wouldn't reveal them, because any extraterrestrial civilization sophisticated enough to make one wouldn't need it or want it.

Unless you originate from a large confederation of such extraterrestrial civilizations, there's no way for you to know that.

(Sssshhhh! Don't give me away.)

I believe the person you are replying to is saying “discover” relatively rather than Euro-centrically, as they mention a hypothetical Aztecs “discovering” Europe and Africa.

Since you're being critical, I think you should suggest a better wording for "Columbus discovered American" that you think will piss fewer people off.

Columbus stumbled over Hispaniola on what he thought was the way to someplace completely different. And then insisted he had got there, instead.

Perhaps something a little snappier and with less axe grinding?

Columbus encountered America.

Love it!

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