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In these sorts of discussions I always wonder why I rarely see people comment that attributes and concepts that are simply beyond our capacity to understand lik
by badrabbit 7y ago
In these sorts of discussions I always wonder why I rarely see people comment that attributes and concepts that are simply beyond our capacity to understand likely exist.
An unknowable unknown is a huge variable to ignore
Considering there are species that cannot comprehend reality as we humans perceive it,is this too far fetched of a hypothesis?
- bitL 7y agoYou can't build a scientific career on unknowable unknowns and people like arguments that support their limited ability/view or need to agree and work on arguments of their superiors to survive.
- core-questions 7y agoWell, imagine trying to convince someone of the existence of radio waves a few hundred years ago.
- badrabbit 7y agoRadio waves are knowable,there are unknown unknowns and that's not what I meant. I meant unknowable unknowns. Think a variable X that will never have value assigned to it. The concept seems ridiculous but on your point,for a long time the concept of the number 0 ( defining non-existance of quantity as a value) was not considered or thought of as useless thing.
- heyitsguay 7y agoPhilosophically, I think that people are rarely interested in talking too much about unknown unknowns because acknowledging them doesn't offer specific, useful predictions about the world - sure, you need to be aware that knowledge is approximate models, your thinking is imperfect, and be open to new data that clashes with your assumptions, but that general point is equally applicable to everything and therefore specific to nothing. Practically, I think that people are rarely interested in talking too much about unknown unknowns because it's typically a segue into talking about gods, or souls, or why quantum physics proves free will or something. Stuff that has been done to death a million times, is as empty as it ever was, and there is other cooler stuff to talk about.
- badrabbit 7y agoWell you talk about these things to find out truth not because they sound cool right? I meant specifically some specific aspect of what you're talking about could be unknowable and you can postulate effects of the unknowable property with respect to knowable variables is what I meant.
- StanislavPetrov 7y agoBy definition, we don't know what is or isn't in our capacity to understand. Certainly we must always keep in mind the possibility that some things may be beyond our comprehension, but we cannot assume that possibility is true.
- badrabbit 7y agoI am not saying to abandon pursuit of knowledge,but like i stated in an earlier comment the number 0 for example exists to define 'nothing' and was not considered useful up until a few hundred years ago I believe. In the same way,if you can define "unknowable" as a value and assign it to certain variables,perhaps more knowledge and truth can be understood?
- buboard 7y agoIt is possible to account for concepts that we cannot perceive but we still have all the other capacities to evaluate the consequences of our incapacity. E.g. we cannot grasp echolocation but we don't consider it something mysterious / dangerous.