Control and Predictability

With certainty comes knowledge, and with knowledge comes a form of control. Certainty gives people the power to manipulate the world around themselves to suit their desires, fulfilling physical needs more efficiently. This is done by recognizing objective, reproducible facts, and applying them to new situations in predictable methods. The Enlightenment project in particular sought out facts beyond perspective, as these facts have the most applicability for future prediction.

Take gardening as an example: a certain understanding of how plants grow leads to better garden yield through the use of specialized tools and fertilizers, and a certain understanding of how the weather works allows the prediction of future rain and frosts. Without a sense of these patterns of the world, even simple tasks like gardening would be extremely difficult to achieve. The artifacts in this room display examples of how certainty allowed people to gain control of certain situations in their lives.