Ignoramus - Sapiens

Humans have sought to understand the universe at elast since the Cognitive Revolution. Our ancestors put a great deal of time and effort into trying to discover the rules that govern the natural world. But modern science differs from all previous traditions of knowledge in three critical ways :

a. The willingness to admit ignorance. Modern science is based on the Latin injunction ignoranmus - 'we do not know'. It assumes that we don't know everything. Even more critically, it accepts that the things that we know could be proven worng as we gain more knowledge. No concept, idea or theory is sacred and beyond challenge.

b. The cetrality of observation and mathematics. Having admitted ignorance, modern science aims to obtain new knowledge. It does so by gathering observations and then using mothematical toos to connect these observations into comprehesive theories.

c. The acquisition of new powers. Modern scienceis not content with creating theories. It uses these theories in order to acquire new powers, and in particular to develop new technologies.



Sapiens , 179p. -Yuval Noah Harari.