[ExI] Gender-Neutral Side Note

[Adrian Tymes]

On Mon, Nov 10, 2025 at 11:28 AM <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:
> I like to think of everything in terms of technology.  In the late 1400s they had instruments which would measure the latitude very precisely.  The sailor needed an accurate calendar and an astrolabe.  But they didn't have clocks accurate enough to measure longitude.  If the old-timers theorized that the earth is spherical (pretty reasonable assumption) then they could estimate how far it is to India, but they wouldn't know how far India spanned to the east.  They knew how to sail around to the west side of India, but what was out there to the east?  They didn't know.
>
> Columbus made a reasonable assumption when he reached land in the Caribbean to assume it was India, and that India was a really big hunk of land.

No, it was known since at least Roman times (Ptolemy, 2nd century AD)
that there was an ocean to the east of China.