One of History’s Longest Discovery Blind Spot

Have you ever wondered why it took humanity nearly 22 centuries to make the next step in understanding the nature of the electron? In about 600 BC, Thales of Miletus experienced the electrifying attractive power caused by rubbing an amber stone, and as well as the magnetizing, attractive power of the lodestone. And it was not until 1600 AD when that William Gilbert was the first to correctly explain the sources of the electric and magnetic attractions and that Earth is a giant magnet.

It is only natural to notice the difference between the slow, tortoise-like pace of scientific discoveries before the 16th century and those between the 17th and 20t th centuries. This curious lull of over 2,200 years begs the question, “What caused this massive scientific discovery blind spot to accrue for that long?” As a result, the collective scholarly and inventive mind of civilization came to an almost shameful halt for many centuries. Why the sluggish pace before the 1600’s, and then the sudden spurt in the beginning of the 17th century as scientific discovery were on steroids?

One can only imagine how different the world may have been today if electricity and magnetism had been discovered one thousand years earlier. It is important to view that scientific gap as a lesson to mankind that innovation and discoveries can go unknown for centuries. Given the world’s burgeoning population and growing demand for food, water, energy, shelter, and all the basics needed to live a decent life, we cannot afford to have the wheels of innovation grind to a halt, whether it be for a 10, 100, or 1000-year gap. Lack of innovation could result in our paying a heavy price that future generations can ill-afford. One wonders how many innovation blind spots are currently amongst us today?

In fact, throughout human history we have been experiencing intellectual blind spots with not only the electron, but across all disciplines.

 Take, for example, the progress in commercial and space aviation. Commercial flights began only a few years after the first flight of the Wright Brothers in 1903; however, commercial space flights did not begin until 100 years later! The first human spaceflight took place on April 12, 1961, when the Soviet space program launched cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into orbit around the Earth aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft. Thanks to Elon Musk, commercial space flights finally began when the Falcon 1 flew on Sept. 28, 2008, becoming the first ever private-funded rocket to be placed in one of the Earth’s orbits.

 The field of astronomy grew and developed around ancient Greece, and many theories were born in the period of 200-300 BC. More than 1500 years passed before we understood the dynamics of the stars and planets. Aristotle and Ptolemy proposed a system that described the cosmos with the Earth as its center and all celestial bodies, including the Sun, Moon, and stars, rotating around it. This system was known as the geocentric model. The work of the ancient Greeks dominated astronomy and their model served as the predominant cosmological system for more than 1400 years.  

 It is amazing to note that no new discoveries or new models of cosmology were put forward until 1510 AD when Nicolaus Copernicus came up with a new, mathematically supported model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than the Earth at the center, triggering a wave of scientific exploration and creating new science around what became known as the heliocentric astronomical model. Is it possible we have lost some of the scientific works of the Hellenistic Era? Almost a century later (1609 AD), Galileo Galilei openly advocated the heliocentric model, placing the Sun at the center of the universe. Almost at the same time, Johannes Kepler expanded the cosmological model to include elliptical orbits, with Galileo verifying Kepler’s new model using a new device he had invented called the telescope.

 In mathematics, it took us a thousand years to develop algebra when Archimedes had invented analytical geometry in 230 BC. Only when we started questioning the principles of Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Galan in math and astronomy, did we embark on a new mathematics.

 In the electro-magnetic field, there must exist a logical explanation for the lack of any significant scientific development for fifty generations. Maybe there is no agreeable, scientifically proven, comprehensive enough explanation one can find, but it is important for us to reflect on this.

 It is not my intention to dive deep to search for an intellectual, scientific, or philosophical answer, given the lack of my professional preparedness to tackle such a task. However, given our unprecedented access to computing power, digitalized historical information, and data, a scientific dive into the major developments that have shaped all societies through their political, social, environmental, and spiritual journeys in the last 22 centuries might give us some concrete answers.

 The 22 centuries between 600 BC and 1600 AD were packed with historical events: the remarkable, enlightened civilization of Ancient Greece; the rise and fall of the Roman Empire; the birth of the world’s major religions such as Confucianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam; China’s internal fighting and savagery as their dynasties struggled for power; the Dark Ages’ cloud over Europe; the empowerment of the European church, killing investigative spirit; the birth and expansion of Islam and its Golden Age; the Crusaders’ invasions; the European Renaissance; and Turkish Empire’s fast rise and slow decline.

 Maybe we as mankind have experienced a global, collective distraction. After all, distraction is the enemy of focus. We were busy waging wars of ideology, race, politics, or territory and, of course, battling disease. Five-thousand-year old China built a wall to protect itself from the world. Muslims made great progress in math and medicine within their own enclave, while Europe was in the Dark Ages for a prolonged period of time and exhausted itself through numerous wars within its own lands and kingdoms. Humanity has gone through profound transformation in our social and civic societies.

 Maybe it was complacency or a feeling that all that needed to be invented had already been invented that killed our competitiveness.

 Maybe it was because scientific discovery was driven by philosophers, physicians, and men of faith, who had limited topical depth and the necessary analytical tools.

 Maybe it was the lasting effect of the cultural, economic, and scientific deterioration with limited human intellectual and creative productivity that followed the decline of the Roman Empire coupled with the increasing empowerment of the church that killed any signs of investigative spirit, requiring reason and inquiry to conform to the truths as defined by the fathers. Such lack of openness for change or free scientific inquiries causes sluggishness and stagnation. Humanity put itself in a small orbit of helplessness, where going in circles justified its existence and made its misery disappear at the expense of progress and prosperity. This was not only a stagnation of mankind, but a downward path from the great achievements of the Greeks, Romans, and Chinese to internal fighting and savagery.

 Maybe humanity hasn’t yet reached a critical mass of intellectually curious and engaged manpower.

 As we look back at history, one fact becomes glaringly clear: scientific discoveries and inventions can go undiscovered for centuries, and creativity can disappear for prolonged periods. It is important for us to study why this happens and to understand the forces that impact us. What causes our unpredictable and varying creative cycles? Our challenge is how to bring about the combination of political, scientific, and social forces with the needed leadership and financial resources to minimize such gaps.

 By 1600 AD, mankind was relatively stabilized. It anchored its spirituality, regionalized its faith, established the humanities and arts for its emotional stability, grasped the beauty and intricacy of life, established institutions of knowledge and wisdom, explored its world, mind, soul, and body. With near perfect global calm, mankind began moving forward again, ready to launch the greatest adventures of its lifetime. What followed was 400 years of unimaginable discovery, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, which, in the process of discovering all forces of nature, allows us to dive inside the atom and explore the multiverse.