Sure. you're not telling me (a person who used to model knots in proteins using molecular dynamics, and works with FEA and other mechanical engineering tools) anything really novel.
Humans discovered hundreds of knots just playing around, and developed excellent knots in the past 400 years; new knots, never before tied, were invented some ~100 years ago. One imagines that a bit of searching with a computer might find a few cases that were overlooked.
> new knots, never before tied, were invented some ~100 years ago.
No. I don't believe that. The archeological record has evidence of humans making rope for tens of thousands of years. I can believe that nobody alive had seen and named those particular interlocked pairs of overhand knots; that no written record of them existed until recently. But your claim that those knots had never been tied is quite presumptuous.
Humans discovered hundreds of knots just playing around, and developed excellent knots in the past 400 years; new knots, never before tied, were invented some ~100 years ago. One imagines that a bit of searching with a computer might find a few cases that were overlooked.
For example, take a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_loop and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_bend and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter%27s_bend and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ashley_Book_of_Knots