“…Yet Jacob was puzzling to me. He seemed a simple man, yet on occasion he brought forth ideas that were far from simple. I knew that many men of the wilderness have much time to think, and their thoughts may wander down strange byways. My own father was an example.
More and more I was wondering about him, and why he had done certain things, why he had often spoken to me as he had, suggesting ideas rarely shared with someone so young as I.
Still, he had known, at the end at least, that his time was short. He had no doubt being trying to pass on as much of what he had learned as possible.
No individual completely acquires the experience of another, but if even a little part may be carried over to the next generation , much time can be saved. In technical ways, methods of working and such, knowledge has been passed on, but too few have learned from experience. I remember my father once saying that perhaps in the future some device might be constructed into which all historical knowledge could be fed, particularly all knowledge of government, of diplomacy, of statecraft, and then this device might tell us what mistakes have been continually made and what situations to avoid.
Men have passed on the knowledge of how to mix cement, lay brick, splice a line, navigate a ship, make steel, and dozens of other crafts, yet in politics, statecraft, and social relationships we continue to repeat old mistakes.”

Louis L’amour The Lonesome Gods Page 211. Published 1983, Bantam Books. Copyright by Louis L’amour Entderprises Inc. ISBN 0-553- 23555-9.