Yuval Noah Harari

Topics: learning, science, history of computing

• The willingness to admit ignorance has made modern science more dynamic, supple and inquisitive than any previous tradition of knowledge.

  — Yuval Noah Harari

• Modern science is based on the Latin injunction ignoramus - 'we do not know'.

  — Yuval Noah Harari

• Scientists themselves are not always aware of the political, economic and religious interests that control the flow of money; many scientists do, in fact, act out of purely intellectual curiosity. Hovever, only rarely do scientists dictate the scientific agenda.

  — Yuval Noah Harari

• When sputnik and Apollo 11 fired the imagination of the world, everyone began predicting that by the end of the century, people would be living in space colonies on Mars and Pluto. Few of these forecasts came true. On the other hand, nobody foresaw the Internet.

  — Yuval Noah Harari

• Mere observations, however, are not knowledge. In order to understand the universe, we need to connect observations into comprehensive theories. Earlier traditions usually formulated their theories in terms of stories. Modern science uses mathematics.

  — Yuval Noah Harari