I read Roy Porter’s 800-page monster of a book, “The Greatest Benefit to Mankind,” last summer and could barely put it down. I’m reminded of it, now, as I anticipate the inspiring and lively discussions we will have at the sixth annual GoldLab Symposium. Porter, who died in 2002, would have been a fabulous presenter and would have sparked all sorts of interesting conversations. His book certainly does.

“The Greatest Benefit to Mankind” focuses on the history of health care and humanity, written by a scholarly person who understood that segment of history and was amused by it. I was shocked to learn how “medicine” started with stuff not much better—if better—than things we laugh at today. For sure, the book teaches us how slowly knowledge builds in society. It describes breathtaking and needed new technologies, along with the human factor (resistance to change), a theme that runs ceaselessly throughout the book. The writing about the ancients is also profound and positive, even if some of what they did only “cured” a third of the people, much the way most oncology drugs do today.

Here’s a quote to encourage you to read the book: “Thomas Sydenham (1624-89) was acclaimed as the ‘English Hippocrates’ since he prized observation, avoided speculation, but used his senses. Asked what were the best medical books? He replied, ‘Read Don Quixote.’”

Find time to read this book. It really is great—and sobering. I suspect the real message in this book is that our smugness about all the technology we have today will be viewed as primitive 2,000 years from now. Will someone then write a book called “What Were They Thinking?”