Laura Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 It's infinite for the same reason why you cannot see the same thing twice. Or for the same reason you can arrange the books on your bookshelf in 45,678 orders. On the other hand, you could eventually reach every possibly statistic, order, and equation that exists in every possible way. I don't think that means that any living or nonliving can know even a fraction of this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killerbeer0 Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 If some sub-atomic particle hits another one and no traces are left behind, its lost knowledge because we could of known but we never will. But it exists and could be known. Therefore potential knowledge is infinite, OH S***! He/she/it is back! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pureprayer Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 If some sub-atomic particle hits another one and no traces are left behind, its lost knowledge because we could of known but we never will. But it exists and could be known. Therefore potential knowledge is infinite, But after a while, it will never be known. Pureprayer, you're awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killerbeer0 Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 If some sub-atomic particle hits another one and no traces are left behind, its lost knowledge because we could of known but we never will. But it exists and could be known. Therefore potential knowledge is infinite, But after a while, it will never be known. Sure, the capacity for knowledge to be known is limited but knowledge itself is not. Even the fact that there is nothing that exists to "know" a piece of information is a fact that could potentially be known. OH S***! He/she/it is back! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zierro Posted April 15, 2009 Author Share Posted April 15, 2009 That brings up a new question. Can something be considered knowledge if it is impossible to learn/discover/know? I mean, look at the definition of the word: : the sum of what is known : the body of truth, information, and principles acquired by humankind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shinjula Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 I would suggest it could be infinite because of combinations. This isnt quite right but I think its a good starting place... Imagine each bit of knowledge is a statement e.g. the Sky is blue (Statement A) Each knowledge statement can be put next to any other statement to create a third different statement, e.g. Water is wet, rain is made of water, therefore Rain is wet. (Statements X, Y & Z) Even four statements can be arranged in an infinite amount of ways (A, AA, AAA.... X, XX, XXX, XXXX... ,... AX, XA, AXX, XAA, AAX, XAA... All the way up to AXYZXYZXYAXAXXYZ and onwards) Now obviously some of the combinations of statements are meaningless, but how much does that reduce our infinity by? (Responses to this need to take into account countable and uncountable infinities) Further you can mathematically prove that there are an infinite number of valid computer programs in (say) Java, wouldnt the knowledge of what each of them does, also be infinite? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stilev Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 i dunno if it has been said yet, but it is very simple -At any given point in time, there is a finite amount of knowledge, so if you stop time, or ask how much knowledge there is at a given time, there is a finite amount of knowledge -Since time creates knowledge, and since time is infinite, this means knowledge infinite pretty strait forward in my opinion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tryto Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 -At any given point in time, there is a finite amount of knowledge, so if you stop time, or ask how much knowledge there is at a given time, there is a finite amount of knowledge -Since time creates knowledge, and since time is infinite, this means knowledge infinite An infinite amount of finite numbers can add up to a finite amount. (0.999...=1) The universe is finite in size and number of particles, and in physics, conservation of information is a fundamental tenet of quantum mechanics. If we accept this to be true(and it appears to be), then there is a finite amount of information, and thus, a finite amount of knowledge. Since the universe is also finite in duration, there is an even lower and still finite amount of possible knowledge. Another tenet of quantum mechanics is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which also lowers the amount of knowledge we can know. If you apply this to humanity, then the possible amount of knowledge sinks, since a single human brain holds a relatively small amount of information flawlessly. Computers can help, but they only increase the amount of possible information to a arbitrary number, and require humanity to interpret binary into knowledge. When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him. ~Jonathan SwiftWebsite Updates/Corrections here. WE APPRECIATE YOUR INPUT! Crewbie's Missions!Contributor of the Day!Thanks to artists: Destro3979, Guthix121, Shivers21, and Unoalexi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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