Golden Age of Science

Key Enabler

Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)

Concept Type

Future Era of Scientific Discovery

Envisioned By

Demis Hassabis

Primary Driver

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Key Technologies

AlphaFold, Genie 3, Hybrid Models

Expected Outcomes

Accelerated Scientific Discovery, Drug Discovery Revolution, Democratization of Creativity, Scientific Breakthroughs, Energy Efficiency Improvements

Historical Precedents

Islamic Golden Age of Science (8th-14th century), Golden Age of Physics (various periods, e.g., 19th century)

Associated Organizations

Google DeepMind, Isomorphic Labs

Predicted Timeframe for AGI (by Demis Hassabis)

5-10 years

0750-01-01

1800-01-01

2021-09-25

2024-01-01

In conclusion, the Islamic Golden Age of Science was a remarkable period in human history that saw an explosion of scientific, philosophical, and artistic creativity. Despite being primarily overshadowed by the Renaissance in Europe, the Islamic Golden Age produced many important innovations and discoveries that continue to shape our world today. [...] The Islamic Golden Age: An Inspiring Tale of Science, Art, and Philosophy Jul 19, 2023 — by Usama Khan in Ancient History, History Insights From the 8th to the 14th century, the Islamic Golden Age of Science was a time of outstanding academic, cultural, and scientific advancements. Islamic scholars made significant contributions to many areas of knowledge during this time. It covered astronomy, chemistry, physics, philosophy, medicine, and arithmetic. [...] Perhaps most importantly, the Islamic Golden Age of Science was marked by a spirit of intellectual curiosity and openness to new ideas, allowing scholars of different cultures and faiths to collaborate and exchange ideas. Image 8: Usama Khan Avatar About the Author

> The golden age is considered to have come into existence through a gigantic endeavor to acquire and translate the ancient sciences of the Greeks between the eighth and ninth centuries. The translations era was followed by two centuries of splendid original thinking and contributions, and is known as the "golden age" of Islamic science. This so-called "golden age" is supposed to have lasted from the end of the ninth to the end of the eleventh century. The era after this period is [...] ### Scientific method [edit] Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) was a significant figure in the history of scientific method, particularly in his approach to experimentation, and has been described as the "world's first true scientist". [...] During the early 20th century, the term was used only occasionally and often referred to as the early military successes of the Rashidun caliphs. It was only in the second half of the 20th century that the term came to be used with any frequency, now mostly referring to the cultural flourishing of science and mathematics under the caliphates during the 9th to 11th centuries (between the establishment of organised scholarship in the House of Wisdom and the beginning of the crusades), but often

A golden age of physics appears to have been delineated for certain periods of progress in the physics sciences, and this includes the previous and current developments of cosmology and astronomy. Each "golden age" introduces significant advancements in theoretical and experimental methods. Discernible time periods marking a "golden age" of advancements are, for example, the development of mechanics under Galileo (1564–1642) and Isaac Newton (1642–1727). Another small epoch seen as a golden age [...] The golden age of physics was the 19th century.[inconsistent] According to Emilio Segrè, in Italy it came to an end in the 18th century, after the time of Alessandro Volta. He reported in his autobiography that Enrico Fermi felt that it was coming to an end in 1933. A golden age of physics began with the simultaneous discovery of the principle of the conservation of energy in the mid-19th century. A golden age of physics was the years 1925 to 1927. The golden age of nonlinear physics was the [...] advancement. Hence, the progress of one era, termed a "golden age" has appeared to mark the completion of physics as a science. Yet, this perception has turned out to be erroneous. For example, around 1980, Stephen Hawking predicted the end of theoretical physics within 20 years. Around 2001, he amended his prediction to twenty years more from that year. Steven Weinberg predicts a unified physics by 2050. Tadeusz Lulek, Barbara Lulek, and A. Wal – the authors of a 2001 book – believed

claimed, ‘A person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of 30 will never do so’ (cf. Rabesandratana, 2014 Age is an advantage. Science. 10 Dec (2014)")). Yet the conditions in physics at Einstein’s time do not reflect science today. We find that the golden age range of high productivity and impact in science is between 35 and 45 years of age. Exactly 50% of all Nobel laureates in science fall into this age range when making their prize-winning discovery, with an [...] Moreover, we also observe interdisciplinary reasoning in the use of analogies in scientific discoveries, in which a concept from one scientific field is connected to a concept from a distant field. Analogies used by discoverers thus involve at times cross-disciplinary conceptual mapping (see analogy section in the Supplementary Appendix and Supplementary Appendix Table 2). ### The golden age range of high productivity and impact: half of all discoveries are made by scientists aged 35–45 years