Maybe I must describe it a bit detailed: today we have various reasons to collect knowledge. One is the knowledge that we gain because of institutional research programs that "gather" similar interests such as graduate schools with a certain scientific focus. The funding of those organisations is often directly connected with publication. So it is often just "piled up" knowledge without a direct practical value. Hopefully, we'll benefit later from it. On the other hand, especially in medicine, we try to "find a solution" by testing a cure for cancer. But at the same time, medical research is also done by huge pharmaceutical companies to earn more profit. This was basically not the mentality of the ancient cultures...