Each of us have things and thoughts and descriptions of an amazing universe in our possession that kings in the 17th Century would have gone to war to possess.

The remark contrasts the information scarcity of early modern Europe with the everyday abundance of knowledge in the contemporary world. By invoking “kings in the 17th Century,” Mullis frames scientific descriptions, data, and ideas as a form of power once monopolized by elites—worth “going to war” over—yet now widely accessible to ordinary individuals. The emphasis on “things and thoughts and descriptions” suggests not only material instruments (books, maps, devices) but also conceptual tools: theories, explanations, and the ability to model the universe. The quote functions as a call to recognize the extraordinary privilege of living amid unprecedented access to knowledge and to treat that access as consequential, even transformative.