Re: We have to respect the limits of human knowledge!

On 2 Dec, 01:48, Einar <eina...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Dec 1, 4:31 pm, Jim Willemin <jim***willemin@hot***mail.com> wrote:





Einar <eina...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote innews:0256bf96-4153-4643-a6db-194bfd404a3a@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

On Dec 1, 10:39 am, Ferrous Patella <FerrousPate...@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Einar <eina...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in news:0524cf16-1869-483c-910a-
dccc767e4...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

By definition explane it all theories
are an impossibility, because simply everything canït be known.

If you are so sure you cannot know everything, how is it that you can
know this?

Logically, the only way that explane it all theory is possible, is
that totality of what can be discovered is finite, and, moreover, that
a way can be found to fully predict behaviour of all systems, wether
it be biological systems or nonbiological ones.

Sounds pretty darn impossible to me, but feel free to disagree :)

It seems to me that the things to be learned are almost limitless - and,
oddly enough, the steady chipping away at the unknown has not yet
reached a boundary that more chipping cannot bring down. As long as we
are able to record and communicate, so that each new generation of
curious people can stand on the shoulders of giants that have gone
before, I really don't see any effective limit on what we can eventually
understand (taking the body of human knowledge as 'we' here - certainly
no one human can encompass that vast and ever-growing corpus of
experience and thought). That there are gaps is nothing to be ashamed
of at all, nor do those gaps present insurmoutable barriers to further
understanding. We are still children in the cosmos, despite some truly
astonishing achievements. And understanding how something works need
not lead to successful prediction - indeed, for many systems detailed
prediction is impossible (consider grains of sand in an hourglass: it is
impossible to predict exactly when a specific grain will fall, or when
or where it will tumble down the pile at the bottom, though we
understand the overall mechanics of the system and can,with some
confidence, predict how things will behave on average). Understanding
that some things are unpredictable is part of understanding the system,
and not, in my view, a failure or incompleteness in human knowledge.

I think I can discern stumbling blocks, likely to prove
insurmountable.

How do we find out the true status of those objects at the present
that we are viewing in far away galaxies, to name one?

How do we find out wether the universe does really have a limit, or
not?

To make a perfect record of a human mind, in order to successfully
make a working copy, one of the holy grails of popular science
fiction.

Now, as we can be sure that some things will ever be unknown, that
does not mean that our search for knowledge is without use. Let´s
remember Einstein´s words to the effects "that the more he learned the
better he understood how litle he really knew"?

I am convinched that eventually we will travel out there to the stars.
We may even encounter some others out there, share stories. But so
wast is the space out there, that we may only ever manage to surwey a
small tiny corner of the Milky Way, which does presumably contain
something on the order of 400.000 million stars...and moreover is only
a galaxy among millions observed to exist out there in the far depths
of space.

In this truly titanic ocean of stars, there will truly never be a time
when all things have been seen, observed, touched or discovered.

Einar

Here is some food for thought, that may make you see things
differently:

****Start of quote****

"I can't believe that!" said Alice.

"Can't you?" the queen said in a pitying tone. "Try again, draw a long
breath, and shut your eyes."

Alice laughed. "There's no use trying," she said. "One can't believe
impossible things."

"I dare say you haven't had much practice," said the queen. "When I
was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes
I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

****End of quote****

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: We have to respect the limits of human knowledge!
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