Progress is man's ability to complicate simplicity

Progress is man's ability to complicate simplicity

Thor Heyerdahl was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer who is best known for his daring expeditions and groundbreaking research in the field of anthropology. Heyerdahl's most famous expedition was the Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, where he and a small crew sailed a balsa wood raft from Peru to Polynesia to prove his theory that ancient South Americans could have settled in the Pacific islands.

The quote "Progress is man's ability to complicate simplicity" can be applied to Heyerdahl's work in a number of ways. On one hand, Heyerdahl's expeditions were incredibly complex and ambitious undertakings that required meticulous planning, expert navigation, and a deep understanding of the cultures and environments he was exploring. In this sense, Heyerdahl's work can be seen as a prime example of how human progress often involves taking simple ideas and concepts and pushing them to their limits in order to achieve new and groundbreaking discoveries.

At the same time, Heyerdahl's work can also be seen as a critique of the ways in which modern society has a tendency to overcomplicate things that could be much simpler. Heyerdahl's expeditions were based on the simple idea that ancient peoples could have traveled long distances using only the most basic of materials and technologies. By contrast, modern society often relies on complex systems and technologies that can sometimes obscure the simple solutions that are right in front of us.