More importantly, as part of our Ph.D. education, we had to literally confront the unknown and explore the frontiers of human knowledge.
Clark Kerr, the first chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, once coined the term "multiversity" to describe the multiple parallel missions of universities, which includes both teaching and developing the frontiers of human knowledge.
"Some call it navel-gazing, we call it pushing back the frontiers of human knowledge," he says with a smile, predicting that his lab will one day win a Nobel prize.
President Barack Obama today named seven recipients of the National Medal of Science, and five winners of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, hailing their "fearlessness even as they explore the very frontiers of human knowledge".
The first paints him as snide and arrogant, an ingrate who never appreciated the education gifted him by Plato; the second portrays him as an exuberant researcher, passionately devoted to his friends and fellow seekers, tirelessly interested in expanding the frontiers of human knowledge.
Launching people to the moon may push the frontiers of human knowledge, but it is important to not overlook the more grounded social problems that can be alleviated through technology today.
As the stock of human knowledge increases, the time needed to move oneself to the knowledge frontier grows.
It hints at the true state of human knowledge.
He was an incredible master of human knowledge".
Or, perhaps, all of human knowledge?
