Modern knowledge reflects the accelerating pace of change that pervades our societies.

The historical evidence suggests that transformations in the patterns of knowledge can now take place in the course of a decade or less, while in the past they might easily have taken a century or more.

In the last century, one new field of knowledge after another has developed — from atomic energy and astrophysics to molecular biology and computer science.

If the rate of change in knowledge can be loosely linked to the rate of population growth, present trends indicate that it will double in each generation.

In just a few centuries, new knowledge and its consequences will create a world almost beyond recognition. Love of Knowledge