Well, if it means anything, alot changed from then

"There is no such thing as a new idea."
- Mark Twain

"There's nothing new under the sun."

Just hope the plagiarism checker doesn't go all the way back to 1953!

Omg

zizo elbrof

Most ideas are expansions built upon previous ideas. Just because your idea was thought of before does not diminish your own efforts. Improvements, expanding concepts and/or applications is the progress of human achievement. Keep it up.

Well said!

On imgur things get reposted within an hour. So, you might be OK.

Honestly, I've only done a master's degree. I know doctorates are on a whole new level of difficulty, but even with my master's thesis, I needed to read or at least be aware of virtually every single argument in my topic. Didn't you do your comprehensives or relevant coursework?

Side note, that sucks and I hope you can find a different spin on your research. I had to do that with mine about a quarter through research.