Jacob Bronowski, The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination (1978)
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Progress is the exploration of our own error. Evolution is a consolidation of what have always begun as errors. And errors are of two kinds: errors that turn out to be true and errors that turn out to be false (which are most of them). But they both have the same character of being an imaginative speculation. ...it seems to me terribly important to say this in an age in which most nonscientists are feeling a kind of loss of nerve. ...by the time science becomes a closed—that is, computerizable—project, it is not science anymore. It is not in the area of the exploration of errors.

— Jacob on Error

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Progress is the exploration of our own error. Evolution is a consolidation of what have always begun as errors. And errors are of two kinds: errors that turn out to be true and errors that turn out to be false (which are most of them). But they both have the same character of being an imaginative speculation. ...it seems to me terribly important to say this in an age in which most nonscientists are feeling a kind of loss of nerve. ...by the time science becomes a closed—that is, computerizable—project, it is not science anymore. It is not in the area of the exploration of errors." in the context of "Jacob Bronowski, The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination (1978)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Error" (B) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Jacob

About Jacob

Jacob, later given the name Israel, is regarded as a Patriarch of the Israelites and so, he is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Jacob first appears in the Book of Genesis, where he is described as the son of Isaac and Rebecca, and the grandson of Abraham and Sarah. According to the biblical account, he was the second-born of Isaac's children, the elder being Jacob's fraternal twin brother, Esau.