998

What would you expect from a seahorse though, am I right?

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[-] TheImpressiveX@lemmy.ml 102 points 10 months ago

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, "Morning, boys. How’s the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, "What the hell is water?"

— David Foster Wallace, This is Water

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 49 points 10 months ago

That joke works until you realize we're perfectly aware of the existence of air.

[-] 5765313496@lemmy.world 80 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Yeah, but would you be aware if you hadn't learned about it in school?

Oh wait. Fish spend lots of time in school. Dang.

[-] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 13 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

There are lots of effects you cannot explain without air. Even if you haven't been to school, you can observe wind, use a hairdryer, blow up balloons, fly a drone etc.

[-] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 9 points 10 months ago

And "air" as a word dates back to both Latin and Greek "aer", probably from proto-Indo-European "awer" so it's pretty much been the same word in European since civilization was a thing.

[-] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 9 points 10 months ago

in European

Oh yes, my favourite language. It's "vzduch" or similar in most Slavic languages, and I'd bet you're not pronouncing it right.

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[-] Landless2029@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

I vaguely recall reading about people not knowing the science of wind and air. They explain trees swaying in the wind as spirits.

[-] Rolando@lemmy.world 35 points 10 months ago

“Fish forget they live in water; people forget they live in the Tao” -Confucius?

[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 39 points 10 months ago
[-] Rolando@lemmy.world 39 points 10 months ago
[-] kboy101222@sh.itjust.works 8 points 10 months ago

Isn't is a bunch of space elves?

[-] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

You are moments away from either being slaughtered by space clowns or whipped into the air by bondage bird men. Best case, some tall motherfuckers may just toss you into space.

Someone will like it no matter what.

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[-] gwilikers@lemmy.ml 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Immediately thought of this.

[-] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 60 points 10 months ago

I think the saying about fish not being aware of water is nonsense. People are aware that there's air around them, without having to know any science. They can feel the wind, their own breath, etc. Fish have that plus they need to push against water in order to move. A fish that didn't know what water was would be like a land animal that didn't know what the ground was.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 51 points 10 months ago

Next you'll be telling me seahorses can't talk.

[-] nexguy@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago
[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago

The unstable ones are mute?

[-] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 12 points 10 months ago
[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 7 points 10 months ago

Of course, of course

[-] LesserAbe@lemmy.world 30 points 10 months ago

I'll have you know fish are fucking idiots

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

I have seen the documentary called Finding Dory and I can confirm this.

[-] fishbone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 10 months ago

Can confirm.

[-] Krackalot@discuss.tchncs.de 29 points 10 months ago

I think you underestimate our past ignorance. It took many decades of science being taught for the general population to "know" that air exists.

[-] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I think the general population always knew that there was a transparent substance all around them which had to keep going in and out of their lungs or they would die - the "breath of life" from the Bible. I mean, even an uneducated peasant in ancient times could blow bubbles underwater and see that there was something coming out of his mouth.

[-] Ironfacebuster@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

I'm not entirely sure if a fish would actually know what water is lmao

The FOOLS fall for little pieces of plastic with metal in them, so there's no way they know what water is

[-] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 9 points 10 months ago

humans jerk off to anime so it's not like we're that much smarter

[-] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

No, that means we have transcended the petty limitations of biological sexuality. We are like gods.

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[-] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 7 points 10 months ago

Wasn't Davinci one of the first to think about air that way? Welll, maybe aside from some ancient greek philosophers.

[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 36 points 10 months ago

Do you like living in the ether?

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 52 points 10 months ago

Yes, I have good ethernet.

[-] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 10 points 10 months ago

I just realized how odd that name is.

[-] bitwaba@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

The idea was first documented in a memo that Metcalfe wrote on May 22, 1973, where he named it after the luminiferous aether once postulated to exist as an "omnipresent, completely passive medium for the propagation of electromagnetic waves."

Hmm, I really thought there would be some clever name I didn't understand, but it really is that aether.

[-] Hammocks4All@lemmy.ml 18 points 10 months ago

Ether you love it or hate it

[-] Hupf@feddit.org 4 points 10 months ago

Like it or leave it.

[-] EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

You either love hating it or hate loving it

[-] neatchee@lemmy.world 29 points 10 months ago

How many ways can we rewrite the allegory of the cave?

[-] SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 10 points 9 months ago
[-] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago
[-] Iheartcheese@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago
[-] burgersc12@mander.xyz 26 points 10 months ago

Stupid seahorse can form complex sentences but can't analyze the water around him like some kinda simple animal!!

[-] jjagaimo@lemmy.ca 7 points 10 months ago

You mean the aether

Right?

[-] HawlSera@lemm.ee 23 points 10 months ago

I have a friend who believes in magic, and that we can't see it for the same reason this sea horse is confused about the ocean

[-] bitwaba@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

Jesus do be like dat

[-] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

Humans live in an ocean as well.

[-] LowtierComputer@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

Air is a fluid!

[-] PrimeErective@startrek.website 5 points 10 months ago

I thought the seahorse was talking about the microphone

[-] Diddlydee@feddit.uk 4 points 10 months ago

Why would you think that? It literally reacted to what the guy said about water.

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this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2024
998 points (99.2% liked)

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