Progress, whether in intellectual theory or literal nuts and bolts, must start with the world as it exists. To those whose notions of rationality require systematic certainty, this is a disturbing concept. But it makes incremental progress possible, and both theory and practice more resilient. Instead of cleaning the slate every time we discover a mistake or a flaw, we can make small adjustments. And we can benefit from history.
History thus provides the raw materials on which the combinatorial process of improvement depends.
The more we inherit, the more we can create. Witness the Mount Wilson telescope. While optimistic, it is not utopian. As a startup, Amazon could tune its procedures, cost structures, and corporate culture to a new technological environment. But the company didn't really start from scratch.