If ya don't know the past, how can you predict the future?

I though today I would talk a little about knowledge. 

I was sitting around the other day looking at my bookcase and could only think "Shit you have a lot of books".. I think I could almost open a small library just with my stuff. But I couldn't get over how many were Art or Photography books. I  have a MASSIVE amount of books on most of the classic painters and artists like Monet, Rubens, Botticelli, right through to photographers like Ansel Adams, Ed Ruscha, William Eggleston, and everything and one in between. I use these as my Bibles. I spend my days trawling through websites looking and learning what everyone else is doing, and if and how I would do it different.

I'm of the opinion that if you don't know the past, how can you see in the future. 

I don't think there is a Newsagent or corner store I walk past that I don't stop and look through all the photography books and magazines. Checking the ones I haven't seen yet for anything that I might be conjuring up myself. 

Art is something that evolves around ideas from the past, that reflect to the future. I'm not sure how many times we can do the same thing, but as long as our twist takes it to a new level, there will always be new art..