Science is a revolution of ignorance

Science is a revolution of ignorance

1. Over the past 500 years, human power has grown phenomenally and unprecedentedly. In 1500, there were 500 million Homo sapiens living all over the planet, but today there are 7 billion people.

2. The value of goods and services produced by mankind in 1500 was about $250 billion (346 trillion won) in today's currency, but today's total annual production is close to $60 trillion (8.3 trillion won).

3. With a modern computer, you can easily store all the words and numbers in all the documents and scrolls in all the libraries of the Middle Ages, and there will be plenty of space left.

4. The money held by any one of today's big banks would be more than all the kingdoms of the Middle Ages combined.

5. In 1500, few cities had more than 100,000 residents, and most buildings were built with mud, wood, and straw. Three stories were skyscrapers.

6. Roads were unpaved dirt roads with wheel marks, and the most common noises heard in the city were human voices and animal cries.

7. No humans traveled around the earth before the 16th century, but today people with middle-class incomes can easily and comfortably travel around the earth in just 48 hours.

8. In 1500, mankind was tied to the surface, but on July 20, 1969, humanity landed on the moon. This is not just a historical feat, it is an evolutionary achievement, or even a cosmic one. During the evolutionary period of the last four billion years, no creature could have left a footprint on the moon, let alone a creature out of the Earth's atmosphere.

9. And it is the 'Science Revolution' that has led us to this historical process. During this revolution, humans gained enormous and new power by investing resources in scientific research. The reason why this is a revolution is that typical pre-modern rulers tried to justify their rule and maintain social order by giving money to priests, philosophers, and poets,

10. Over the past five centuries, humans have come to believe that they can increase their abilities by investing in scientific research. And this is not a blind belief, but a fact that has been repeatedly proven empirically.
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11. (In particular, rulers and intellectuals before modern science pretended to know all the truths and principles of the world as if they were gods, but ironically modern science started with the recognition of ignorance.)

12. Modern science is based on We Don't Know. And we accept that what we think we know may prove wrong.

13. The scientific revolution was not the knowledge revolution. It was the "Revolution of ignorance." (The scientific revolution began when a man who longed for an omnipotent God admitted that there was something in the world I didn't know, that I could be wrong.)

14. (And this can be applied to an individual, too. I'm not bragging that I know a lot, but exploring what I don't know may be the most revolutionary way to change myself.)

- Yuval Harari, in "Sapiens"