There are plenty of accidental discoveries that we might imagine happening much later—but I don’t feel like this should be enough, because it’s not that they were surprisingly early, they were just drawn out of a very broad probability distribution.
I’m more satisfied with disoveries that not only could have happened later, but happened when they did for sensible local reasons. Example: Onnes’ discovery of superconductivity. Not just because superconductivity was discovered very rapidly (3 years) after the necessary liquefaction of helium, when it conceivably could have taken a lot longer to properly measure the resistance of mercury or lead at low temperatures. But because Onnes’ lab in Leiden was the first place to ever make liquid helium to cool superconductors with, and it took 15 years for anyone else in the world (in this case, Toronto) to start liquefying helium!
In short, to my mind being ahead of your time is the opposite of multiple discovery—we push back the luck one step by asking not for a lucky break, but for a sensible and straightforward discovery that could only have happened in a very unusual place.
There are plenty of accidental discoveries that we might imagine happening much later—but I don’t feel like this should be enough, because it’s not that they were surprisingly early, they were just drawn out of a very broad probability distribution.
I’m more satisfied with disoveries that not only could have happened later, but happened when they did for sensible local reasons. Example: Onnes’ discovery of superconductivity. Not just because superconductivity was discovered very rapidly (3 years) after the necessary liquefaction of helium, when it conceivably could have taken a lot longer to properly measure the resistance of mercury or lead at low temperatures. But because Onnes’ lab in Leiden was the first place to ever make liquid helium to cool superconductors with, and it took 15 years for anyone else in the world (in this case, Toronto) to start liquefying helium!
In short, to my mind being ahead of your time is the opposite of multiple discovery—we push back the luck one step by asking not for a lucky break, but for a sensible and straightforward discovery that could only have happened in a very unusual place.