Donald Braben's book begins with the idea that the unique quality of Homo sapiens is not wisdom, but rather the capacity for dissent. By this he means not the transient dissatisfactions that spark violence at sports events, for instance, but the dissent that emerges from "an individual's overwhelming conviction that some aspect of life has become unbearable". Braben believes it is this characteristic of humans that gives rise to scientific discovery of the kind that changes our view of the world, be it Galileo's restructuring of the Universe or Barbara McClintock's transposons, which overthrew the notion that genomes are static. And because it is increasingly recognized that science and technology power contemporary economic growth, it follows that the freedom to challenge the prevailing thinking is essential not just to deepen our understanding of the world, but to sustain economic growth as well.
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