Learning Limits—Part 2

So, returning to the field of science—which is a case of collective knowledge, rather than individual belief: Are we able to describe boundaries to our scientific knowledge that may never be crossed? It may help first to address the difference between knowledge and understanding. My dictionary defines knowledge as “facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education.” Understanding, however, goes deeper; it involves a person's perception or judgment of a situation. Understanding implies that we perceive the significance of something. There are many scientists who acquire facts and information about a topic, but fail to comprehend their significance. For example, one may collect data on the geological characteristics of some location, without understanding how or why they came about, or what the future may bring.

So if we confine our attention to science, we may ask ourselves if Nature imposes some fundamental limit to what we can know about something. Before the invention of scientific tools such as telescopes and microscopes, we faced an impenetrable barrier to seeing the nature of stars or microorganisms. There seemed to be an absolute boundary to what we could learn. Those barriers were eventually largely surmounted. Today, science seems stumped about what dark matter and dark energy are—yet most scientists do not regard our ignorance in this area as an impenetrable barrier. More experiments and new or improved instruments may solve these quandaries. Better theories and models may point the way.

Cosmologists are posing some of the thorniest questions about the nature of the universe. Some of the questions seem to imply that there might be an outer limit to our knowledge. Does life exist elsewhere? The universe may be so vast and empty that we may never know. Our universe—according to current models—began, as it burst forth from an infinitesimal point, nearly 14 billion years ago. Was there a time before the Big Bang? Our universe—again, according to current theories—has been expanding ever since. Will it continue to expand? Is there anything “beyond” the universe that we inhabit? Some of these queries appear to some cosmologists as to be so fundamental and profound, that they may forever remain beyond the island of our knowledge.

Many of these questions are unanswerable from the perspective of today's knowledge, yet they are definitely worth setting forth. Should we frustratingly and doggedly pursue complex conundrums that are unsolvable? Should we step back, pause, and ask if we are even asking the right questions? Should we grasp at speculative explanations and refuse to acknowledge that we may be in over our heads? Or should we relax, live with the mystery, and let time and accrued wisdom point the way?