How many facts does a person know? How many falsehoods?
We assume that as a person matures, the number of falsehoods diminishes and the number of facts increases. We use the word "foolish" to describe someone who has more falsehoods than facts in their brain, "wise" to describe the opposite.
I am troubled by the thought that many people go through life without ever becoming wise, without ever possessing a great many more facts than falsehoods. Perhaps the ratio of facts to falsehoods averages out to 1:1 for a large population.
Is the world as a whole becoming wise? Or is the number of falsehoods that people believe growing just as rapidly as the number of facts that they learn?
The Dark Ages seems to be a time of foolishness, but don't ignore the wealth of practical knowledge than many people possessed. The Renaissance seems to be a time of growing wisdom, but don't ignore the wealth of superstition that many people possessed.
What about today? I fear the number of people who believe that children are vulnerable to a "sugar rush" is growing while the number of people who know that sugar has been proven to not increase activity in children is shrinking. One could write down a host of similar observations. Maybe humanity is not on a journey to wisdom, but instead is merely muddling through with a nearly constant 1:1 ratio of facts to falsehoods.
