Sep 022007
Most people are smarter than the famous scientists of yore. Look at what the average eighth-grader knows and understands about the world. Certainly more than Copernicus, Galileo, and perhaps even Newton.
I’m not saying we are more intelligent or have better insight than these famous scientists. They had a certain intuition and drive for discovery that most people lack. But in terms of mere facts about the world, we probably know more about more things than they did. Granted our knowlege is built upon their work. We’ve had hundreds of years of technoligical improvements upon which to draw. As the world’s population has grown, more knowledge has accumulated, and the collective knowledge of individuals has increased dramatically.