Is knowledge a curse?

Originally posted by Grate the Vraya
If the knowledge is deep but specific, then, while it becomes power in specific cases, it is useless in others, and if the knowledge is broad but vague, it becomes power in most cases, but, because of the lack of depth, the use is limited.

Fortunately we don't have to make these extreme compromises in real life. We gain deep knowledge of the things that are important in our lives and that interest us while we gain shallow knowledge of the irrelevant or boring things.

Originally posted by Grate the Vraya
Let us also not forget the price of knowledge. To gain knowledge requires time, and takes space in memory.

So? Everything takes time and that space in your memory isn't getting used for anything else.

Originally posted by Grate the Vraya
Sometimes gaining knowledge produces stress because of the new questions that are revealed.

I would count that as a good thing, not a price.

Originally posted by Grate the Vraya
Gaining knowledge therefore reduces the amount of time that can be spent doing other things, and, as I have pointed out above, in most cases, its use is limited.

The vast majority of knowledge you have is useful. The knowledge of how to open doors, chew food, walk, jump, count. You can't seriously be proposing that we shouldn't seek out knowledge because we might be wasting time. Everything around you came about because someone used knowledge to solve a problem.

Originally posted by Grate the Vraya
So, while I'm not saying that knowledge is a curse, I do believe that it is a gamble.

Except that in this case not gambling is an instant loss (ie if you know nothing you're far worse off than the guy who just knows some trivia).

Naturally knowledge is a gift. Using improperly makes it a curse.

Edit

Naturally knowledge is a gift. Using "it" improperly makes it a curse.

You could've just edited your first post.

Depends on what type of knowledge and how much.

unless your a megalomaniac backyard scientist with delusions of grandeur with the money and access to radioactive material and the intellect of Doom... i doubt it.

Originally posted by King Castle
unless your a megalomaniac backyard scientist with delusions of grandeur with the money and access to radioactive material and the intellect of Doom... i doubt it.

Humans have evolved higher intelligence than other forms of life on earth...but we don't seem to use it very well.

This is my take, I am only a teenager, I have heard much about the world and I do not like what I here... I think that knowledge is a bad thing, this is why. Do you ever wonder why kids, running around in the street, playing games, believing in things like Santa, it seems that they are having the time of their life. It's because they are, they, being kids, don't really know anything, and don't really have a firm grasp from what's real and what's not, but once they progress and they find knowledge of the real world, their happiness detiriorates, and with knowledge comes questions, questions that haunt us in our sleep. "is there a god," "how do I know I'm not real," these type of questions are the questions that come from what we learn, and I don't know about you, but they drive me insane, and I know I'm just a 17 teen year old who pushes way to hard and puts too much stress on myself, I blame knowledge, the knowledge of a broken heart, the knowledge of an artist, the knowledge of being skeptic, and it's a shame because with out knowledge, we cannot proceed in life and be succsessful... And on the other hand, knowledge has taught me how to love, taught me how to be respectfull, and much more... The overall thing to know about knowledge is to know how it helps you, and how it doesn't

This discussion reminds me of the poem, "To Science" by Edgar Allan Poe.

to much of anything could be a curse..

Yeah, I guess that could be true. lol

Originally posted by beast1234
knowledge is not a curse because it equals power.

Only it doesn't always, and some of the times it does, that power can be a curse as well. It all, of course, comes down to how you define a curse and how you define power.

To the OP, Hell yeah knowledge is a curse. I would much rather not know that many in the world are idiots, and the more I know about anything, the more I know THAT.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
Knowledge is a curse precisely because it lets you see how stupid everyone actually is. You're always surrounded by ignorance, if you can't see it you're probably not smart enough.

"I know only that I know nothing"

Knowledge = bacteria. There are good ones and there are bad ones.

Originally posted by Rapidash
The less you know, the happier you are. Is it possible to consider knowledge a curse?

I think people mostly only choose to "know" enough to make themselves confortable. If this wasn´t the case there woulnd´t be so many religious people beleiving in total and utter crap, building themselves a safety bubble out of some fantasy.

Knowledge is harsh, not everyone can take it.

Yes, it is. Thats why our Lord God gave us hammers, so we might remove this curse with many righteous drubbings to the cranium! ALRIGHT CHUMS LETS DO THIS! ARGH!

......at leest i hav chiken

Knowledge is a curse when others dont have the same kind of knowledge...(its like a cop that gets married to a teacher)

That's true. Expecially when you try to share that knowledge and it doesn't want to be heard. Everybody is an idiot around but they think that you are. lol

not if everyone had it....

patience is a virtue