Sublime

In this book I argue that all progress, both theoretical and practical, has resulted from a single human activity: the quest for what I call good explanations.

Must progress come to an end – either in catastrophe or in some sort of completion – or is it unbounded? The answer is the latter.

But the fact is that progress requires the application of ever more knowledge in advance of our observations.

In this book I argue that all progress, both theoretical and practical, has resulted from a single human activity: the quest for what I call good explanations. Though this quest is uniquely human, its effectiveness is also a fundamental fact about reality at the most impersonal, cosmic level – namely that it conforms to universal laws of nature tha... See more

A problem can also arise purely theoretically, without any observations.

Fuller cautions: Specialization tends to shut off the wide-band tuning searches and thus to preclude further discovery.