known

I wonder how much information has been known, and then forgotten. I wonder how many things could have been invented, but weren't. How many men and women knew the best way of doing a thing, only to bring it with them when they died.

How many scientific papers, books, works, life works, have been burned? How many sculptures were destroyed by invading armies? How many mysteries lie somewhere, unfound?

I think we can rest assured that either the greatest scientific discovery, or the greatest poem, or the greatest philosophical work, is not currently known, it has been lost to history. We have these bits and pieces, memories of entire people groups of statues that were, but are no more. We hear of entire libraries, full of unique works, burning to the ground.

For all that is known, so much in unknown.

We have the knowledge of several living generations, and the vote of many, many dead.

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