Today I read Knowledge or Certainty, the eleventh chapter in the book, “The Ascent of Man,” by Jacob Bronowski. This chapter is about gaining and applying knowledge. It primarily concerned the fact that, no matter how precise an instrument used for measuring is, there will always be a tiny margin of possibility. Nothing is absolutely definite, although the range of variations may be minuscule. The chapter also talked about the atomic bomb and Leo Szilard, who made major contributions towards developing the atomic bomb and created the idea of a chain reaction. He realized that, by hitting an atom with a neutron that split into two, a chain reaction would be created. He tried to make sure that the idea wasn’t published until after the war, but it didn’t work, and the bomb was used on the Japanese. The book went on to say that, contrary to common belief, science will not make people inhumane, because with science, there is always something new to discover. It is a belief in absolute knowledge without reasons that makes people into numbers, like at Auschwitz and other concentration camps. With science, no one knows everything, but people can always continue to discover more. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the debate of whether science makes people into numbers or simply looking for an interesting book to read and rate it 9.8/10.
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