AUSCHWITZ AND ABSOLUTE KNOWLEDGE

There is no absolute knowledge. And those who claim it, whether they are scientists or dogmatists, open the door to tragedy. All information is imperfect. We have to treat it with humility. That is the human condition; and that is what quantum physics says. I mean that literally.

Literally, standing in the pond at Auschwitz, holding the ashes of Holocaust victims in the mud, Bronowski’s entreaty to all humanity is that:

we have to cure ourselves of the itch for absolute knowledge and power.  We have to close the distance between the push-button order and the human act.  We have to touch people.

Bronowski, Jacob (1973) The Ascent of Man, Little, Brown and Company, Boston.