Your 1.) is missing a point that has been passed over throughout most of this thread - knowledge does not build up over time like so much detritus. New discoveries replace old, inaccurate ones. It is conceivable that with sufficient optimization of scientific models, one could have a superior understanding of the world using less total data than older models without even taking into account the excising of blatantly verbose and inaccurate beliefs.
Good point. Also, new knowledge often builds on old by adding layers of abstraction, allowing the creation of new knowledge using these higher layers. More importantly, it allows the teaching (and learning) of these abstractions which implies that new people don't have to keep learning the "old" things from the ground up.
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Your 1.) is missing a point that has been passed over throughout most of this thread - knowledge does not build up over time like so much detritus. New discoveries replace old, inaccurate ones. It is conceivable that with sufficient optimization of scientific models, one could have a superior understanding of the world using less total data than older models without even taking into account the excising of blatantly verbose and inaccurate beliefs.
Good point. Also, new knowledge often builds on old by adding layers of abstraction, allowing the creation of new knowledge using these higher layers. More importantly, it allows the teaching (and learning) of these abstractions which implies that new people don't have to keep learning the "old" things from the ground up.