vol 3: Development
cap 1: Epistemology
page 7: The limits to knowledge
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... to restore theology to the mainstream of science
Limits
The limits to knowledge?
What are the limits to human knowledge? Since knowledge is a product of communication, we may identify the limits to knowledge with the limits to communication.
This work recognizes two limits to knowledge: internal inconsistency, system infinity and limited bandwidth.
First, let us assume that an internally inconsistent statement is outside the bounds of knowledge. We cannot make sense of it, but it may serve as the foundation of a question: why this inconsistency?
Second, let us assume that knowledge is connected with information, and all information is physically encoded. The amount of information we can store in a physical system is measured by its entropy. We say we have reached 'system infinity' when the amount of information we wish to store exceeds the entropy of our system. One cannot store 11 megabytes of data in 10 megabytes of memory. You might say compress the data, but there is a limit to compression, so that system infinities ultimately limit the complexity of possible knowledge.
Third, there is a dynamical aspect to knowledge, since knowledge of a changing situation requires changing knowledge, which requires communication. The rate at which two sources can communicate is measured by bandwidth. Bandwidth relates to system infinity as space-time does to space; in other words, it introduces a time dimension into the communication of information upon which knowledge is based.
Greater bandwidths can communicate information faster, but the rate of communication is always finite. All human knowledge, therefore, is based on the collection of finite amounts of data through our senses.
The Roman Catholic Church holds that God is immutable, and that knowledge of god may remain fixed and 'irreformable' forever. The god of natural religion is dynamic, so that continual observation is needed to keep up. This is not possible without sufficient bandwidth.
Transcending these limits
Each of these limits can be overcome. Inconsistent statements can be modified to obtain consistency.
We can overcome our individual system infinities by working together in parallel by communication, and by finding more imaginative and powerful expressions of our knowledge.
Finally, we can increase our effective bandwidth with tools like printing presses, computers and optical fibres
Ultimately, however, thee are limits to how much we can know. There will always be further mysteries seeking solution. Barring accident or very bad management, there seems no reason why our planet and ourselves should not last until the sun engulfs us or becomes too dim to sustain life on earth.
Something along these lines is predicted to happen in five billion years or so. We have a lot to learn. There is plenty of time to learn, but our rate of learning may become crucial if our environment changes too quickly.
Books
| Horgan, John, The End of Science: Facing the Limits of Knowledge in the Twilight of the Scientific Age, Little Brown and Co 1996 Amazon Editorial Review From Publishers Weekly 'Scientific American columnist Horgan here interviews an impressive array of scientists and philosophers, who seem sharply divided over the prospects and possibilities of science. Among the pessimists, molecular biologist Gunther Stent suggests that science is reaching a point of incremental, diminishing returns as it comes up against the limits of knowledge; philosopher Thomas Kuhn sees science as a nonrational process that does not converge with truth; Vienna-born thinker Paul Feyerabend objects to science's pretensions to certainty and its potential to stamp out the diversity of human thought and culture. More optimistic are particle physicist Edward Witten, pioneer of superstring theory (which posits a universe of 10 dimensions); robotics engineer Hans Moravec, who envisions superintelligent creative robots; and physicist Roger Penrose, who theorizes that quantum effects percolating through the brain underlie consciousness. Other interviewees are Francis Crick, Noam Chomsky, David Bohm, Karl Popper, Murray Gell-Mann, Sheldon Glashow, Ilya Prigogine and Clifford Geertz. Despite the dominant doomsaying tone, this colloquium leaves much room for optimism.' Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. Amazon back |
| Meadows, Donella H, and Jorgen Randers, Dennis L Meadows, The Limits to Growth: a report for the Club of Rome's project on the predicament of mankind, Earth Island 1972 Amazon Editorial Review: From Publishers Weekly Updated for the second time since 1992, this book, by a trio of professors and systems analysts, offers a pessimistic view of the natural resources available for the world's population. Using extensive computer models based on population, food production, pollution and other data, the authors demonstrate why the world is in a potentially dangerous "overshoot" situation. Put simply, overshoot means people have been steadily using up more of the Earth's resources without replenishing its supplies. The consequences, according to the authors, may be catastrophic: "We... believe that if a profound correction is not made soon, a crash of some sort is certain. And it will occur within the lifetimes of many who are alive today." After explaining overshoot, the book discusses population and industrial growth, the limits on available resources, pollution, technology and, importantly, ways to avoid overshoot. The authors do an excellent job of summarizing their extensive research with clear writing and helpful charts illustrating trends in food consumption, population increases, grain production, etc., in a serious tome likely to appeal to environmentalists, government employees and public policy experts. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved Amazon back |
| Popper, Karl Raimund, Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge, Routledge and Kegan Paul 1972 Preface: 'The way in which knowledge progresses, and expecially our scientific knowledge, is by unjustified (and unjustifiable) anticipations, by guesses, by tentative solutions to our problems, by conjectures. These conjectures are controlled by criticism; that is, by attempted refutations, which include severely critical tests.' [p viii] Amazon back |
| Popper 1972, Karl Raimund, Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge, Routledge and Kegan Paul 1972 Preface: 'The way in which knowledge progresses, and expecially our scientific knowledge, is by unjustified (and unjustifiable) anticipations, by guesses, by tentative solutions to our problems, by conjectures. These conjectures are controlled by criticism; that is, by attempted refutations, which include severely critical tests.' [p viii] Amazon back |
| Wiesethan, Simon L, The Sunflower: On the Possibilities anbd Limits of Forgiveness, Schocken Books 1997 Amazon Editorial Review: 'Author Simon Weisenthal recalls his demoralizing life in a concentration camp and his envy of the dead Germans who have sunflowers marking their graves. ... one day, a dying Nazi soldier asks Weisenthal for forgiveness for his crimes against the Jews. What would you do? This important book and the provocative question it poses is birthing debates, symposiums, and college courses. ... Among the contributors: Sven Alkalaj, Bosnian Ambassador to the U.S., Moshe Bejski, retired justice of the Supreme Court of Israel, Robert McAfee Brown, leading Protestant theologian, Robert Coles, Harvard professor of social ethics and author, The Dalai Lama, Eugene Fisher, National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Matthew Fox, author and leading Episcopalian theologian, Yossi Klein Halevi, Israeli journalist and son of a Holocaust survivor, Arthur Hertzberg, rabbi and author, Theodore Hesburgh, President Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame, Hans Konig, Cardinal of Vienna, Harold Kushner, rabbi and best-selling author, Primo Levi, Italian Holocaust survivor and author, Cynthia Ozick, novelist and essayist, Dennis Prager, author and conservative radio commentator, Dith Pran, photographer and subject of the film "The Killing Fields" about the Cambodian genocide, Albert Speer, German Nazi war criminal and author, Tzvetan Todorov, French literary critic, Harry Wu, Chinese human rights activist.' Amazon back |
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