The discovery of ignorance
One of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time was the discovery of ignorance. It’s an interesting way to frame things, but it’s exactly what Yuval Noah Harari did in his book “Nexus“. From the book:
“A scientific institution gained authority because it had strong self-correcting mechanisms that exposed and rectified the errors of the institution itself. It was these self-correcting mechanisms, not the technology of printing, that were the engine of the scientific revolution.
In other words, the scientific revolution was launched by the discovery of ignorance.”
Harari shared similar thoughts in a previous books of his, and my own ignorance is something that I intentionally try to pay close attention to. Knowing where I’m weak lets me know what I should work to improve as well as what is acceptable to leave as weak spots.
A better way to frame it might be through Einstein’s idea of the “circumference of darkness” that surrounds our knowledge; as we learn more, there is even more around the edges that we don’t know. Simply knowing about that circumference of darkness is incredibly valuable (though also off-putting).
The progress of science depends on us recognizing our ignorance and continually working to address it. For more, I highly recommend you check out Nexus.