Mankind expands or grows it's understanding through the discovery of "new" things.

I emphasize new because it makes my opening statement misleading. As far as I have been able to tell, we have not discovered anything new yet. All of our "discoveries" (as far as I can tell) are of things that already existed. We call them new because they are new to our awareness. The only thing new about any of our discoveries is a new way of looking, or thinking that allowed us to see what was already there.

This is why I say the perspective is everything to us. Change the way you look at anything, and different (more) information is noticed".

If one applies this concept, one comes to the realization that we "know" nothing. If all it takes is a change of perspective, then any change of perspective changes our understanding of everything.

If one incorporates this understanding, it opens our eyes (the meaning of enlightenment in my opinion).