The Invention of Doubt: Science and the Problem with Certainty

About this episode

We expect science to give us answers. But what if its greatest breakthrough was learning to be wrong? For most of human history, we wanted knowledge to be certain. Then, around 400 years ago, something changed. After discovering that much of what we thought we knew about geography, astronomy, medicine and the natural world was wrong, a new idea took hold: perhaps the best way to understand the world was to stay open to being wrong. In this episode of A Short History of Saving the World, Angus Hervey and historian Ada Palmer trace the invention of scientific doubt, from ancient Greek sceptics and Aristotle’s eels to Francis Bacon, the Scientific Revolution and AI. Along the way, they arrive at a bigger question: in an age obsessed with certainty, are we still willing to change our minds?  In this conversation: • Why is being wrong a feature of science, not a failure? • Did Francis Bacon really invent the scientific method? • What can ants, spiders and honeybees teach us about knowledge? • Why do some scientific ideas get attention while others are ignored? • Is distrust of science always a bad thing? • And could AI change not just what we know, but how we discover it? Timesta