It is said that the ancient Library of Alexandria in Egypt contained all the knowledge of the ancient world. Although the exact date of its destruction remains unknown, I join those who lament the loss of so much treasured information.

Today, we have the World Wide Web. More powerful than that famous library, it truly gives us the ability to research information anywhere in the world. Which got me thinking.

What if we formed a group of brilliant, experienced scientists with research and medical backgrounds, and enabled them to examine all the research papers ever published on disease, nutrition, and health? Let’s give them all the advanced computing power available, and an exceptional staff to support their efforts. What would they find?

Would we find cures for the various cancers? Could we regrow the brain or limbs? Could we end diabetes? High blood pressure? Brain diseases? Could we end physical pain? Could people live healthily to age 200? Could we grow corn, rice, or wheat in barren deserts that could potentially feed a hungry world? Does this knowledge already exist? Is it a matter of well-funded exceptional minds taking the time, effort, and organization to go through all the world’s knowledge?

We could conduct a similar project with engineers scrutinizing all reported patents on inventions. Could they develop more engineering wonders by extrapolating existent technology? Could automobiles reach 200 mpg? Could we completely replace combustible engines with cleaner, cheaper, more abundant fuel sources? I read once that we could create energy from water – however, it is not energy-efficient. Do we already have the knowledge and ability to make that dream a reality?

I sometimes wonder why automobiles cannot travel 200 miles or more on a gallon of gas. Forget government mandates on the auto industry. At best, that might force out a few more miles per gallon. But why aren’t we seeing huge gains in engine productivity? We are able to engineer almost anything today. We launched Viking 1 in the 1970s, and today it has left our solar system. We are able to put rovers on Mars, drive them around, analyze the air and soil, and video the entire process. Yet my small 4-door automobile today gets no better gas mileage than the car I purchased nearly 30 years ago – even though it is from the same assembly line. In fact, the gas mileage is actually less, because of ethanol requirements.

Are there downsides to such discoveries? If the blind could see, the crippled could walk, and diseases cured, many health care professionals would be out of employment. A cheap, abundant natural source of energy would benefit humanity, but it would also cost us jobs and profits in the energy sector.

Certainly, I cannot be the first person to think of forming such elite groups of experts. However, if this was already done, why weren’t the results announced to the world? Are engineering marvels and cures for diseases deviously stored in some warehouse because there is no profit? Is it more profitable to keep people alive and sick, rather than alive and healthy? Is knowledge that could vastly improve the human condition being suppressed?

Who would suppress such knowledge? Ask yourself two questions. Are governments more concerned in controlling people or serving them? Are large corporations more interested in people or profit?

We will never know what ancient secrets humanity lost in the burning of the Library of Alexandria. Likewise, I wonder what knowledge exists today that we will never acquire, because either no one has taken the time to seek them, or someone has prohibited that knowledge from being revealed to the world.

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