by James Augustus Berens —“During the Age of Discovery, the acquisition of kno

by James Augustus Berens

—“During the Age of Discovery, the acquisition of knowledge and territory produced high return to investment ratios. However, given the limits of human cognition and available territory, we’ve observed diminishing returns.

It is now costly, and highly unlikely, though not impossible, that we can make consequential scientific discoveries that produce the returns observed in the early scientific period. Similarly, humans have populated all habitable areas of planet earth, so territorial expansion is rarely pursued.

With these two changes we observe a corresponding shift from ‘discovery,’ the low-cost identification and capitalization of opportunities, to scientific criticism (high-cost identification + optimal calculation via negativa) of available, and known choices/opportunities.”—