In the past five centuries, there was a burst of scientific discoveries. There were at least couple of ground-breaking discoveries every century. They completely changed our understanding of this universe. For example, when Heliocentrism was discovered, we suddenly were able to understand the motion of Heavenly bodies. Ttheir motion is no longer heavenly; their motion is no longer to dictate peoples’ life. Ditto that to Gravitation and laws of motion. They further advanced us to understand the functioning of several things in our day to day life. Wave theory and electro-magetism gave us more clarity. Then came the theory of general and special relativity. That again completely changed our understanding. There is no gravity; mass is no different from wave and energy. [If you still believe in school text books, grow up; there is no gravity.] When is the last time such a discovery happened? When is the last time all our understandings were invalidated and new but different and obvious explanations were given?
Why did a sudden bust of discoveries happened and then why did it subsidise? One valid and probably a real reason is, during the start of Renaissance, European scholars came across Arab and Chinese manuscripts that explained things that were new to Europeans. Actually several of the early discoveries are commonly known in China, India and Arab world. These ancient civilizations, took those things for granted and the pace of new discovery was very slow. But Europeans were ignorant of those things, and this information fuelled their scientific spirit. That let to a cultural change or what we know as Renaissance. Once the wheel has been set into motion, it let to further thinking and research that let to more discoveries and inventions. Initially the thought process was not institutionalized. But when the pace of growth increased, you need a framework to manage the growth; better channelize the growth and dissipate its benefit to the masses. By the end of 20th century, the framework or rather the institution took over. Spirit of innovation was replaced by redtape. Joy of discovery is replaced by short term utility. The growth engine has now subsidised and the world looks again like the mature Indian/Chinese/Arab civilizations.
All we need now is a crisis. Crisis leads to need to redefine things. Any redefinition or change in the current thought process will again start the positive spiral of second Renaissance.
Reflections 