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IN 1515, THE GERMAN artist Albrecht Dürer made a famously bad depiction of a rhinoceros, based on reports of an animal that had been brought to Lisbon. Dürer’s woodcut demonstrates what psychologists call “schema,” the natural tendency to impose patterns of the familiar on the unfamiliar. Having never seen a rhino, but moved by the description of its armor-like skin, Dürer girdled his animal in steel, complete with rivets.
What if…