12. Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
The phrase “standing on the shoulders of giants” is a metaphor which means “using the understanding gained by major thinkers who have gone before in order to make intellectual progress”.
The earliest documented attestation of this aphorism appears in 1123 in William of Conches’s Glosses on Priscian’s Institutiones grammaticae.[1] Where Priscian says quanto juniores, tanto perspicaciores (young men simply can see more sharply), William writes:
The ancients had only the books which they themselves wrote, but we have all their books and moreover all those which have been written from the beginning until our time.… Hence we are like a dwarf perched on the shoulders of a giant. The former sees further than the giant, not because of his own stature, but because of the stature of his bearer. Similarly, we [moderns] see more than the ancients, because our writings, modest as they are, are added to their great works.
But its most familiar and popular expression occurs in a 1675 letter by Isaac Newton: “if I have seen further [than others], it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”[2]
Eric Gastfriend of the Future Life Institute investigated the topic of how many scientists are alive today versus all in the past. The calculation was based on the number of PhDs granted each year since 1900, papers published and patents granted. The result was 90%.
Calculating the percentage of scientists currently alive involves some guesswork. If we assume each scientist is 27 years old when they receive their PhD, and 80 years old when they die, then in my model the PhD grantees from 1959-2012 are alive, and those from 1900-1959 are dead (my apologies if I have given you an untimely death). By that measure, exactly 90% of all scientists that ever lived are currently alive. Of course, this ignores scientists that lived before 1900, although I expect that number to be small relative to the millions of scientists alive today. Technically, de Solla Price said it was 80-90%, so within that range of uncertainty, the statistic probably still stands.
Science and technology have drastically transformed our lives. This revolution has taken place almost entirely in the past 200 years – one tenth of one percent of our species’ 200,000 year history. Never before have we had so many people whose sole purpose of work is to better understand how the world works. This has far-reaching implications, both good and bad, for the future of humanity. It’s difficult to wrap our minds around the blistering pace of innovation that is about to come.[3]
Any new graduate enters the field with a vast ocean of information readily available online. Further developments don’t start from zero but from the lofty heights attained by countless predecessors. Entrepreneurs seldom invent something wholly new but instead implement an existing technology better or make improvements.
[1] Merton, Robert K., On the Shoulders of Giants. A Shandean Postscript. The Post-Italianate Edition. With a Foreword by Umberto Eco. University of Chicago Press. p. xiv., 1993.
[2] Newton, Isaac. “Letter from Sir Isaac Newton to Robert Hooke”. Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
[3] 90% of All the Scientists That Ever Lived Are Alive Today, Eric Gastfriend, Future of Life Institute, 2015