Winning the Jackpot: Jobs Dividends in a Multipolar World

In an intriguing book on the methodology and dynamics of knowledge creation, Firestein (2012) makes the point that the most promising and fruitful approaches in hard sciences are generally not those that try to build on the existing body of truths but rather those that focus on things that are still unknown. As a neuroscientist, he draws on his own experience to advocate tolerance for radically different pursuits, “the pleasures of scientific mystery, and the cultivation of doubt.” He writes: “When I sit down with colleagues over a beer at a meeting, we don’t go over facts. We don’t talk about what’s known. We talk about what we’d like to figure out, about what needs to be done.” The celebration of uncertainty has led him to rehabilitate ignorance, seen as a particular condition of knowledge and the most critical part of the scientific enterprise.