In Eureka Manifesto: The Mission for Our Civilization, Yuri Milner presents a compelling vision of a modern era of enlightenment. The billionaire advocates for a cultural shift to a society that prioritizes knowledge, critical thinking, and scientific exploration.
Central to Milner’s thought-provoking manifesto is the concept of a universal mission. This mission is a call to unify humanity in exploring and understanding the cosmos.
Let’s unpack the mission Milner proposes and the importance of cultivating a new enlightenment.
Yuri Milner’s Mission for Our Civilization
Milner opens Eureka Manifesto by arguing that, if we want human civilization to survive and thrive long into the future, we need a shared mission. A mission can inspire collective action and enable large groups to focus their efforts and work together, as in the case of an organization like Doctors Without Borders.
Without a mission, humanity is unlikely to accelerate scientific and technological progress fast enough to solve the challenges we face today, like climate change. Strides in fundamental science, and space exploration in particular, can also help us make sense of our place in the cosmos. Through consistent innovation, humanity could one day be a galactic civilization.
However, the mission Milner proposes — “to explore and understand our Universe” — isn’t merely about scientific curiosity. It represents a profound endeavor to unlock the mysteries that have fascinated humanity for millennia. (This is also the goal of Milner’s pioneering space science programs, the Breakthrough Initiatives.)
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Einstein On the Run
While only a few people will make the big discoveries that drive our understanding forward, Milner emphasizes that everyone can contribute to the mission. We all have an important role to play in reorienting society around principles like critical thinking and reasoning.
Milner explains that scientific progress flourishes in cultures that value these intellectual principles. He cites the Scientific Revolution, which arose from “a shared culture of truth-seeking, rational argument, and criticism.”
In contrast, scientific progress can stagnate and even stall in cultures that suffocate freedom of thought and champion irrationality. Milner points to the puritanical cult of Savonarola, which suppressed an embryonic enlightenment in Florence, just a century before the time of Galileo.
In another example of this stifling of scientific thought, Nazi Germany branded Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity and quantum mechanics as “Jewish science.” Nazi leaders sought to remove these “supposed perversions of common sense” from intellectual history.
Einstein’s theories have transformed our modern world. At the 2024 Breakthrough Prize ceremony, Milner paid tribute to Einstein’s work, explaining that it paved the way for the invention of the Global Positioning System (GPS). Without GPS, we would have no precise location data and no accurate way to navigate.
Igniting A New Enlightenment
In the Eureka Manifesto action plan, Yuri Milner tasks us all with sparking a new enlightenment in which everyone can contribute to a shared culture of knowledge. This means ensuring science chauvinists don’t hold back progress any further. Otherwise, we risk stifling scientific culture and jeopardizing the future of our civilization.
Milner quotes the physicist David Deutsch, whose book The Beginning of Infinity vividly illustrates the significance of the failed enlightenments of the past: “If any of those earlier experiments… had succeeded, our species would be exploring the stars by now, and you and I would be immortal.”
“Our ancestors — some of them — failed us,” Milner concludes. “We must not fail our descendants.”
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About Yuri Milner
Yuri Milner is a visionary entrepreneur who founded the internet investment firm DST Global. A signatory of the Giving Pledge, Milner has vowed to donate the majority of his wealth to promote scientific discovery and address global challenges. He has helped set up several philanthropic initiatives, including the Breakthrough Junior Challenge.
This annual competition inspires students to explore complex scientific topics and create short, creative videos explaining them.
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