Up: [[Thinking]] Created: 2023-03-08 Ignorance gets a bad rap because of its negative connotations to stupidity. But Stuart Firestein and some heavy hitter predecessors like George Bernard Shaw claim that ignorance is what is essential to science. > [!Orbit] George Bernard Shaw > Science is always wrong. It never solves a problem without creating ten more. This is quite different from common [[Metaphor]]s of science like putting puzzle pieces together (assumes there’s a guaranteed solution) or peeling an onion and getting to a central core (assumes there’s a large body of facts we will eventually completely understand). We need knowledge, for sure, but the best use of that knowledge is to help us ask better questions about all of the things we are ignorant of. This point reminds me of the massively overused [[Rainer Maria Rilke]] quote about staying with the questions and someday living into the answers. > [!User] Neuorscientist Stuart Firestein, [the Pursuit of Ignorance](https://www.ted.com/talks/stuart_firestein_the_pursuit_of_ignorance?language=en) Ted Talk