From the Dark Age to the Dark Age again

[FastPlaySlow]

Does it ever seem as though as we reach further into the future, as our technology grows, so does the questions that arise on why things are so?

For example, when Columbus sailed the Ocean, it was a vast expanse of uncharted territory or whatnot, and likewise if we ever have the ability to travel great distances through space, it would appear to be the same.

What I'm trying to say is that, there are similarities to the past with regards to the future when we look at things we don't understand. I guess it's like what's past the ocean back then, and now it's like, what's past the stars now?

It's just something I've always thought about. It's like a never ending loop.

[BigBuffet]

Kind of like fractals...

[thylacine]

Not really. It is more like an every expanding sphere. The more we know (the volume of the interior of the sphere) the more we become aware of what more there is to know (the area of the surface of the sphere, providing a window to what is beyond).

While the bigger-sphere---later-time situation has many obvious similarities to the smaller-sphere---earlier-time situation, it is defintely not something you could could `cyclic'. It is much more aptly described as `irreversibly progressive'.

There are some groups (though I am not thinking the OP is coming from this direction) such as religious fundamentalists and cultural relativists who basically say that science is essentially arbitrary and made-up, and that it is not going anywhere. They are utterly wrong.