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30 Things That Are Older Than Most People Think, As Shared In This Viral Online Thread
Science & Technology,History,CuriositiesJUN 10, 2021

30 Things That Are Older Than Most People Think, As Shared In This Viral Online Thread

Mantas Kačerauskas
Jonas Grinevičius
Mantas Kačerauskas and Jonas Grinevičius
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Get ready to set aside a lot of the things that you assume you know about history. Frankly, history gets weird (but in a totally cool way) the closer you look at it and start putting events and inventions in their proper context. For instance, the fact that the fax machine was invented way back in 1843 and could have technically been used by a real samurai completely blew my mind and reignited my passion for history.
Netizens have been sharing the intriguing things that are actually way older than we tend to think after redditor Kakou64 created a viral thread on r/AskReddit. You’ll find the best and most interesting answers below. It’s a real treat for history lovers and anyone with an interest in tech and science cuz it will definitely change your perception of time and how things are connected. Oh, and don’t forget to upvote your fave facts!

#1

30 Things That Are Older Than Most People Think, As Shared In This Viral Online Thread
A bit different answer: but ancient people. A lot of times you hear people talk about the life expectancy of ancient people being around 35, so you picture a really young society when you think of the Romans, Egyptians, Mesopotamians, or even hunter-gatherers. This isn't really the case. The average is 35 because infant mortality and early childhood death was so common. If you just take the life expectancy of people who reach adulthood (16), then the life expectency is easily in the early 60s. There were plenty of 70 and even 80-year-olds 2000 years ago.
GateNerd, wikipedia
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221points

#2

30 Things That Are Older Than Most People Think, As Shared In This Viral Online Thread
Ancient Egyptians who built the pyramids. The Ancient Egyptians were as old to the Ancient Romans as the Ancient Romans are to us.
trespuntoslikespider, wikipedia
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167points

#3

30 Things That Are Older Than Most People Think, As Shared In This Viral Online Thread
Sharks. Sharks as a family are older than trees
PmMeUrBoobsPorFavor, Marcelo Cidrack
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153points

Kakou64’s thread got a whopping 78.4k upvotes and it’s no wonder—their question inspired others to share things that are incredibly interesting to a lot of us. Fun and weird trivia? Check. Infotainment? Double-check. A reason to have another cup of coffee while reading some cool stuff to impress your colleagues by the water cooler via Zoom? Check, check, and check!

If we know the past well, it’s far easier to make predictions about the future and how technology will change and improve. However, making prognoses is never a guaranteed success. And anyone who tells you that they know something will happen for certain is selling you snake oil!

#4

30 Things That Are Older Than Most People Think, As Shared In This Viral Online Thread
The idea that everything's getting worse and that the world's coming to an end soon. Sure, there's new vocabulary and new science involved, but people have been sounding that pessimistic alarm throughout history.
TimesThreeTheHighest
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146points

#5

30 Things That Are Older Than Most People Think, As Shared In This Viral Online Thread
I don't know if this counts but Dinosaurs lived on the earth a lot longer than most people think. When you think of dinosaurs, you think of their extinction but they roamed the earth for 165 million years. Compare that to our 6 million and it's almost mind boggling, at least imo.
The modern form of humans is 200,000 years old but if we include our humanoid ancestors, we've been here 6 million years.
saymynamebastien, James Lee
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129points

#6

30 Things That Are Older Than Most People Think, As Shared In This Viral Online Thread
The fact that the lighter is older than the match shook my head as a kid.
It also gave me the curiosity to question things that seems obvious.
Gyroklovn, wikipedia
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124points

Earlier, I spoke about the future of tech with Aaron Genest, an Applications Engineering Manager for Siemens Software and the President of SaskTech. According to him, making accurate predictions about the future of tech and devices is difficult but not impossible.

"I'd argue that most people underestimate the timelines necessary to produce the technological goods on which we rely and the investment made to allow them to exist. By looking 'upstream' in that investment space, we can have a pretty good idea of what whole industries are betting on," Aaron from Siemens told Bored Panda earlier.

#7

30 Things That Are Older Than Most People Think, As Shared In This Viral Online Thread
Contact lenses.
Leonardo da Vinci had the idea of contact lenses in 1508 and the first successful contact lenses were made in 1888.
-eDgAR-, wikipedia
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123points

#8

30 Things That Are Older Than Most People Think, As Shared In This Viral Online Thread
The sentiment that modern society is degenerate and that the youth are to blame is, iirc, one of the oldest things we have written down.
That I can remember off the top of my head, Cato the Elder complained that the younger generations were becoming too greek, and Socrates used to complain that the younger generations were ruining their brains by writing instead of memorising information. There are far more older examples, but those are the oldest I remember (maybe Socrates was onto something)
CountPeter, wikipedia
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122points

#9

30 Things That Are Older Than Most People Think, As Shared In This Viral Online Thread
The ancient Romans (well, the wealthy ones) had central heating in their homes. You can actually still see the pipes in some of the buildings at Herculaneum!
jazzman0116, wikipedia
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121points

"For instance, it takes almost two years to develop and produce a computer chip and get it to market for a phone, and five years to get something into a new kind of car. So if we want to have a sense of what, for instance, the gadgets in our cars will look like in 2026, we just need to look at what the car manufacturers are asking their suppliers to design today,” the expert explained to Bored Panda.

So take a look at history, have a peek at what’s going on currently, and soon enough you might be predicting the future along with the best of the best, dear Pandas!

#10

30 Things That Are Older Than Most People Think, As Shared In This Viral Online Thread
I was really surprised to discover when Oxford university was founded. They don’t know the year for sure, but they know there was definitely teaching going on there in 1096.
princess_mothership, wikipedia
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113points

#11

30 Things That Are Older Than Most People Think, As Shared In This Viral Online Thread
Beer is thought to be older than bread.
It's much easier to fill a jar with wheat and water, let it ferment, and brew beer than it is to grind grain, mix it, and bake it.
4dseeall
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106points

#12

30 Things That Are Older Than Most People Think, As Shared In This Viral Online Thread
The Aux connector that we still use for headphones and speakers was invented in 1877. There have been improvements since, but the basics of it are pretty much the same.
given2fly_, wikipedia
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102points

#13

30 Things That Are Older Than Most People Think, As Shared In This Viral Online Thread
Oxford university. It’s older than the Aztec empire
Euphorix126, wikipedia
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100points

#14

30 Things That Are Older Than Most People Think, As Shared In This Viral Online Thread
Flushing toilets date all the way back to the Indus River Valley civilization, back in 2000 BC
steveguyhi1243, wikipedia
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99points

#15

30 Things That Are Older Than Most People Think, As Shared In This Viral Online Thread
Stonehenge.
It predates the oldest Pyramid in Egypt by nearly 300 years.
squeeeeenis
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98points

#16

30 Things That Are Older Than Most People Think, As Shared In This Viral Online Thread
Wristwatches. Queen Elizabeth I got one in 1571.
Aqquila89
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91points

#17

You. By the law of conservation of mass “ no mass can be created or lost simply moved or changed into something else” your body and all inside of it and everything in the universe for that matter has been around since the very start. Only in random atoms etc and when we die our bodies are recycled back into the universe to be made into something cool. Like cow poo.
jxcobs12
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91points

#18

30 Things That Are Older Than Most People Think, As Shared In This Viral Online Thread
Nintendo. This company was actually created in 1889.
[deleted], wikipedia
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85points

#19

Paul Rudd
helpicantfindanamehe
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85points

#20

The name Tiffany.
It dates back to the 12th century, and has actually led to a thing in writing called "the Tiffany problem," because you can have a well-researched historical novel that people just don't buy into, because you named your 12th century peasant Tiffany. It just sounds laughably anachronistic.
BeaneathTheTrees
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80points
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