Copernicus and the Ptolemaic System

Copernicus says the earth revolves around the sun. Had he had access to telescopes that would be developed not that many decades later, let alone to the instruments we have for searching the heavens today, he would have understood immediately that that suggestion was ridiculous. But you can't get a new species by dropping out information, by becoming stupider. Adding new capabilities requires new proteins, which requires solving this combinatorial problem.