Prior Art Debates

Comments debating whether a featured technology, feature, idea, or event was truly novel or had existing precedents, prior versions, or was done before.

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3,047
Comments
20
Years Active
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#4932
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
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2009
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2010
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2011
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2012
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2014
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Keywords

HN previous predates wasn prior art weren things mentioned predecessor question did singularity way actually

Sample Comments

Agebor Nov 4, 2020 View on HN

That perhaps it was already done before...

nusl Jan 18, 2026 View on HN

This was possible before, though

_3ex7 May 14, 2010 View on HN

Same, but a long time ago (before it was cool to do so)

tonyhart7 Jun 5, 2025 View on HN

wait they didn't do that before???

graeme Nov 26, 2018 View on HN

They did, it was something else before

luckydata Dec 19, 2015 View on HN

there were a few before but not many.

higherpurpose May 12, 2015 View on HN

Wasn't this already known (or presumed) before?

gberger Dec 14, 2019 View on HN

Why was this not a thing before?

globular-toast Dec 31, 2020 View on HN

It's been around before anyone was suggesting to join too...

marcosdumay Jan 14, 2025 View on HN

Wasn't that the previous one?