[WalterBright]

Interesting that you mention textbooks. Most of my STEM classes in college did not have a textbook, or recommended a book that was kinda irrelevant to the direction the classes took.

BTW, the discovery of the Scientific Method was a great leap forward in how to discover more knowledge.

[kelseyfrog]

Kind of makes you wonder if there are other epistemological generators even more powerful than science waiting to be discovered.

[Eisenstein]

> Most of my STEM classes in college did not have a textbook, or recommended a book that was kinda irrelevant to the direction the classes took.

So you went through classes with no written material? You listened to lecture, took notes, and then did assignments and passed tests with no documents to study?

> BTW, the discovery of the Scientific Method was a great leap forward in how to discover more knowledge.

The scientific method is a set of protocols that are followed in order to formalize evidence and prediction. Putting it into a set of words is important, but not required. Humans managed to sail across oceans and build wonders just fine without it.

[nradov]

Humans made gradual progress before the scientific method but it was slow and kind of random. If you look at the historical pace of innovation it tremendously accelerated after the scientific method became widespread.

[Eisenstein]

> Humans made gradual progress before the scientific method

When was 'before the scientific method' exactly?

> it was slow and kind of random.

I would argue it wasn't random at all -- it was directed towards human needs and desires as appropriate to the times. There was never a period where humans stopped using their intelligence and problem solving skills to improve their lives in whatever ways were available.

> If you look at the historical pace of innovation it tremendously accelerated after the scientific method became widespread.

When did it become widespread? Where did it spread to? Did those places all show a similar increase in innovation in the years after?

[WalterBright]

Google says:

"While elements of the scientific method existed in ancient times, the modern scientific method is generally attributed to Sir Francis Bacon who outlined it in his 1620 treatise "Novum Organum," placing the invention of the scientific method during the early 17th century during the Scientific Revolution;"

which sounds about right.

It was much more prevalent in free market countries. Authoritarian economies tend to be too rigid to experiment and develop new things.

[Eisenstein]

> "While elements of the scientific method existed in ancient times, the modern scientific method is generally attributed to Sir Francis Bacon who outlined it in his 1620 treatise "Novum Organum,"

Which specific aspect of that work was responsible for humans being better able to solve complex problems after its development which could not have been solved before it, if the same access to materials and resources were available?

> Authoritarian economies tend to be too rigid to experiment and develop new things.

The German regime during the years between 1930 and 1945 is generally understood to have been highly authoritarian and was responsible for some very famous technological breakthroughs in fields such as rocketry and aviation.

[WalterBright]

> Which specific aspect of that work was responsible for humans being better able to solve complex problems after its development which could not have been solved before it, if the same access to materials and resources were available?

It sounds like you don't know what the scientific method is?

> The German regime

Yes, it was. And I wrote "tend to be" not "absolutely 100%".

[WalterBright]

> So you went through classes with no written material? You listened to lecture, took notes, and then did assignments and passed tests with no documents to study?

That's right.

I learned to never miss a lecture, and take copious notes. I also never missed a retch session. And still sometimes I needed help from a patient classmate.

The fun thing about the notes was when reviewing them, I'd recall the verbal part of the lecture. This helped a great deal.

Sadly, the passage of decades has silenced that voice, and I have a hard time understanding the notes today. I've wished many times I'd have had the foresight to bring a cassette recorder to lecture and record them. Too bad all those lectures are lost to time. But nobody recorded lectures in those days, and it never occurred to me.