Chapter 14: The Discovery of Ignorance

Harari demonstrates how this acknowledgment of what we do not know became the driving force behind modern scientific inquiry, contrasting sharply with ancient civilizations that revered established wisdom and cyclical worldviews. The chapter explores how science evolved from an isolated intellectual pursuit into a powerful alliance with political empires and capitalist systems, creating a self-reinforcing feedback loop where scientific discoveries generated new technologies, which produced wealth and military power, which in turn funded further research. This symbiotic relationship fundamentally altered humanity's relationship with progress, transforming previously accepted limitations like death, poverty, and disease from divine inevitabilities into technical problems awaiting solutions. Harari introduces the concept of the Gilgamesh Project, representing humanity's ambitious quest to overcome mortality through scientific advancement, while emphasizing that scientific utility rather than absolute truth determines the value of theories and discoveries. The chapter critically examines how scientific research agendas are shaped by external forces including economic interests, political priorities, and ideological frameworks, demonstrating that science cannot operate independently of social and financial structures. Through various examples ranging from nuclear weapons development to agricultural innovations, Harari illustrates how the scientific method became intertwined with imperial expansion, technological warfare, and economic competition, ultimately creating the modern belief system that views technological progress as humanity's primary path forward while acknowledging the moral ambiguity inherent in science's dependency on power structures.