a very simple and at the same time, very complex question. what are your thoughts one this? is knowledge ultimately limited or does it have no limits. is it finite or infinite?
It's as limited as memory. The capacity of long term memory is thought to be infinite, though cannot be proven. I personally believe there is a limit to knowledge.
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You can answer this question from different angles.
Is there a limit to how much knowledge one human being can acquire?
- In terms of a human lifetime?
- Does the human brain have a physical limit in terms of how much knowledge it can acquire and hold?
Is there a limit to knowledge itself?
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No one knows if there is a limit to how much knowledge the human mind can take in. Sure a person is limited by their short life time which would be no where near enough time to learn everything there is to know assuming we did know. A person is also limited by their learning capability as there is only so much the 'average' person can understand. Then again is the question asking if there is a limit to universal knowledge? I would imagine so but to the human mind it might as well be infinite don't you think?
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Yes.
If you continue to gain knowledge it stands to reason (and the test of history) that this will lead to more questions which will themselves lead to more question and on and on ad infinitum.
As time is broken down to smaller and smaller bits (which afaik one can do forever) whole universes of new information are made.
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depends on what "knowledge" is. IN facts, there is probably a limit. In interpretation and understanding...probably infinite depending on how you look at something.
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Actually, there is (theoretically) a limit to how small time can be broken down. It's called Planck time (10^-43 seconds): the smallest unit of time in which anything known by our current laws of physics makes sense (ie, to say "less than Planck time" is meaningless). In this moment after the Big Bang, it's when quantum gravity dominated the nascent universe.
That aside: Quantum mechanics imposes a limit on knowledge because of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (this prompting Einstein -- who favored the idea of no such limit to knowledge -- to utter his famous, "God does not play dice with the universe").
Mystical schools of thought talk about the Void / Abyss / the Godhead / Nothingness / Formlessness: essentially, God as "He" relates to Himself (as opposed to how He relates to the created world). This is a level of reality completely/forever beyond the ken of any lesser being.
In a nutshell: there are precedents in both physics and mysticism for postulating a limit to knowledge. But this does not necessarily mean there is a limit to information independent of human query.
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Gender: Male Location: al-Jumhuuriyya al-Yamaniyya
I know about PlankTime I was just thinking that since our understanding breaks down at that point doesn't mean that reality does.
The limit from the UP exists because it prevents certain knowledge from existing at the same time, right? ie the information exists and therefore the knowledge about it might exist.
*nods thoughtfully*
Thanks.
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In the Heaven I'm headed to/ There's a place for preachers, thieves and prostitutes/ Saints and soldiers, beggars, kings and renegades
1) We are not immortal. We live short lives, and in that limitted frame of conciousness, we could not possibly know all there is to know.
2) We only occupy one world. How could we have full knowledge of this entire universe, when we only exist on one world ? One out of trillions and trillions of worlds ?
3) We cannot read everyone's minds To know all is to know what everyone else knows as well. Can you read other people's minds ? Can you connect to every single human and animal mind on the planet ?
Point Being due to several conditions which limit us, our knowledge is limitted and always will be.
Agreed. Personally, I suspect that as our physics gets a better grasp of, say, brane theories and other dimensions/universes, physical reality may reveal some kind of fractal nature. But this will probably be the state of physics centuries into the future.
The UP says, eg, that you can't know an electron's momentum and position simultaneously at any one given moment. Whether this represents a limit to what we can know or what is simply knowable is a good question. Einstein postulated "hidden variables," which potentially would return certainty to this level of reality.
The pleasure is mine (no, really; how often do I get to write a whole mess of impressive-looking stuff and have others think I know what I'm talking about ).
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Once man can comprehend infinity, will we be able to ascertain what is infinite and what is not. I find it ironic that we can accept the universe being infinite, but we can not accept the notion of a "supreme being".
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May 26th, 2007 04:25 AM
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