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Buckminster Fuller Marie Curie Albert Einstein There are two books from which humanity has read through the ages. The first, and some might think the oldest, is the book of tradition. Recorded in this book are the ways of the ancients. This book is treasured by many, especially those who think that they can learn nothing for themselves that has not already been discovered. This book is filled with many useful things, for example, the secrets of making fire, the secrets of fertility of humans and beasts, the places where the heavenly bodies rise and set, the secret of speech itself. The second book is the book of discovery. This book has many empty pages, and some of the earliest pages written in it have been rewritten, marked out, even stricken from the book altogether. It is a book of ferment, of change, and it is treasured by those who believe that the world is full of things the ancients knew not, waiting to be revealed. This book, for all its uncertainty, is full of useful things, and in many ways conflicts with the knowledge contained in the book of tradition. The second book, of course, is actually the older one. The first pages are marked with the tears of our earliest ancestors, who struggled to understand the basics -- why ice is cold, why the sun is hot, why blood is precious, why the sun never reverses its tracks, and the planets do. Somehow, through their sacrifices, we gained the knowledge that was then put into the book of tradition. Those who feared that such knowledge, bought so painfully, might easily be lost, made those early teachings divine, unchangeable, unquestionable. Their care deserves our respect. But not our veneration. For our allegiance must always be to the book of discovery, which is where history waits for us to record our entries. The book of discovery is a workbook, a journal, a log of our observations, tests and speculations. We write our thoughts there, without fear of being wrong, because it is the refining place where error can be discovered and rooted out, where truth can be identified and fitted into the greater web of truth. Those who would write in the book of discovery must have the spirit of open inquiry. They must read the book of discovery with excitement. The solid conclusions of the past should goad them to criticism and refutation. Certain that something has been misunderstood, that some slight or great error accounts for the lack of perfect solutions, they will travel all roads, explore all possibilities, as life gives them breath. And what they record shall be as blood in the veins of humanity, as food on our table, while the book of tradition grows thinner and less relevant with each passing day.
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