texts: They can't.  I think it's against human nature to admit to that level of... insignificance; to not see yourself as basically the center of the universe.
labels: It's like the pre-Copernicans who swore the sun revolved around the Earth, or the Victorians at the end of the last century who concluded that all major discoveries had now been made.  I mean... try to imagine civilization a thousand years ahead of us -- then imagine trying to explain... I dunno, a microwave oven -- to someone even a hundred years ago -- I mean the basic concepts didn't exist...