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excon

Is EVERYTHING knowable?

Hello:

Will there be a time when scientists can hang up their lab coats, and congratulate themselves for having figured out EVERYTHING?

I say yes. 

When I was a kid, we thought the continents were static, and the Milky Way was the only galaxy. We've come a long way since then and there's no reason why it should stop. 
 
Unless, you can convince me.

excon

Posted - February 18, 2023
Tags : None

Responses


  • 2132
    No guy not really because, scientists are scientists opening up a new can of worms where a conclusion is made. I think knowledge is illimitable and forever undone. What about the dimensional spectrum? Astral travel? Mind not ???? n control. This post was edited by CosmicWunderkind at February 18, 2023 10:24 AM MST
      February 18, 2023 8:43 AM MST
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  • 3907
    Hello C:

    That's an interesting take.  But, when I said everything, astral projection, if there is such a thing, is included.  Consider that science learns it ALL and there's NOTHING left to discover..

    excon
      February 18, 2023 9:05 AM MST
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  • 2132
    But what about disease cures that can kill off large swaths of humanity though. Right?
      February 18, 2023 9:22 AM MST
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  • 3907
    Hello again, C:

    Sorry to hear about your COVID experience..  Hope you're coming along..  But, curing disease, of course, would be included in everything, wouldn't it?

    excon This post was edited by excon at February 20, 2023 10:56 AM MST
      February 18, 2023 9:51 AM MST
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  • 44648
    Wait...scientists know what women think and want?
      February 18, 2023 9:01 AM MST
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  • 3907
    Hello Sailor:

    Yeah...  If they figured THAT out, there would be NOTHING to live for..

    excon
      February 18, 2023 9:06 AM MST
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  • 2132
    This is why I am ant-natalist right now.

    Sick kids

    Credit: Joy Ho for NPR

    I wanted to report this story last month, but I was too sick with COVID. My kid gave it to me.

    My colleagues on the health reporting team would have tackled the story, but they've been sick, too, thanks to their children. (Just last week, one colleague dropped off her daughter for her first day back at preschool after recovering from a bug, only to pick her up that same afternoon, sniffling from a new illness. Yikes.)

    And we're far from alone in our woes.

    "Like so many parents out there, you know, my husband and I have been sick all winter. We've been sneezing, coughing, had fevers. It's gross," says Dr. Rachel Pearson, a pediatrician at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and University Hospital. She's also the mother of 2-year-old Sam.

    "I feel like half the time he has a virus, has a runny nose, is coughing – to the point where my dad was like, 'Is there something wrong with Sam?' " she says.

    Sponsor Message
     
     
     
    This post was edited by CosmicWunderkind at February 20, 2023 8:57 AM MST
      February 18, 2023 9:20 AM MST
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  • 13277
    Only for a select few of us, lol!
      February 18, 2023 10:25 AM MST
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  • 17611
    Negative.
      February 19, 2023 1:06 PM MST
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  • 53524

     

      I don’t know. 

       (Hey, wait . . . )
       ~

      February 19, 2023 1:11 PM MST
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  • 17611
    I started out with the same thing, but downsized my answer. 
      February 19, 2023 1:17 PM MST
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  • 53524
      February 19, 2023 1:18 PM MST
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  • 44648
    Yes, everything is potentially knowable. We just don't know everything...yet.
      February 19, 2023 3:22 PM MST
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  • 3907
    Hello again, S:

    YOU da man!! Science is facts.  Facts can be known.  Facts don't change.  What was a fact 1,000 years ago, will BE a fact 1,000 years from now. 

    We WILL, of course, figure them all out.  When that happens, I'm just wondering what scientists will DO.

    excon
      February 20, 2023 9:03 AM MST
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  • 844
    I doubt that I can convince you, but I don't believe that. No matter how much information that scientists uncover, new things are created in nature, like Ebola, HIV, or Corona virus.

    It would be a success if scientists could just know everything about human behavior and the successful resolution when that behavior is harmful. There are endless ways that human behavior is inherited, learned, and combined to form each personality, then multiply that by millions and millions of people. Do you really think that's possible? This post was edited by NYAD at February 20, 2023 11:17 AM MST
      February 19, 2023 4:01 PM MST
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  • 53524

     

      One example is the cure for cancer. Efforts toward that goal have been going on for several decades yet have not yet been realized. That does not mean the cure will never be discovered, but on the other hand, there’s no guarantee that it ever will be discovered. In this sense, the thing that is unknown is how to cure cancer.
    ~

      February 19, 2023 4:57 PM MST
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  • 844
    The point I was trying to make is that new forms of physical or mental diseases are periodically newly created. No matter how knowledgeable scientists become, there will be new ones coming. I didn't even go into the knowledge needed to avoid harm from natural phenomenon like earthquakes or tsunamis or just plain evil people. 

    "Will there be a time when scientists can hang up their lab coats, and congratulate themselves for having figured out EVERYTHING?"

    I say no. 

      February 19, 2023 9:51 PM MST
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  • 53524

     

      I believe that a majority of the (serious) answers so far focus on current events and on pursuits of knowledge in the present time and in the future, as in what humankind knows now or is attempting to figure out now and will continue to figure out.  I propose a pursuit of knowledge that is being overlooked in that mindset: present day knowledge of things that began and ended in the past.

    For instance,
    Prior to photography and prior to portraits, do we truly know what certain historically (famous) people looked like?
    There’s probably not one human being alive today who was present when Amelia Earhart disappeared, meaning someone who knows what truly happened to her. Investigation, speculation, research, etc. have not yet given definitive answers, and those efforts can continue for quite some time. At this point, that knowledge doesn’t exist.

    There are countless things that have taken place throughout history that we are not exactly sure of the complete who, what, when, where, why or how. 
    ~

      February 19, 2023 10:27 PM MST
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  • 844
    Good job. I really think that, with a little additional thought, we could add several more categories of things that can't be known. This post was edited by NYAD at February 20, 2023 11:17 AM MST
      February 20, 2023 7:11 AM MST
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  • 53524

     

      I agree.
      ~

      February 20, 2023 7:12 AM MST
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  • 3907
    Hello again:

    I appreciate all the comments, but let me be clear..  The time I'm talking about is when SCIENCE has it ALL figured out.  When I say all, I mean ALL..  That means we'll know all the hard FACTS about our surroundings, and nothing can or will surprise us..  Personally, I believe the universe is finite.  Therefore, EVERYTHING can be known about it.  Science is FACTS, and FACTS don't suddenly come into existence.  There's only two categories of facts - those KNOWN and those not known.   Will we ever KNOW them all?  I don't see why not.

    And, I didn't ask with any thoughts about religion. Believing that we'll NEVER know has some religious connotations that I don't subscribe to..  But maybe this can't be answered WITHOUT talking about religion.  I dunno.  .But, I'd like to hear what you think about it.

    Randy, I wasn't talking about KNOWING everything, just everything about science. 

    excon     This post was edited by excon at February 20, 2023 11:18 AM MST
      February 20, 2023 8:51 AM MST
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  • 844
    That's what I answered. What you believe and what I believe makes no difference in the end. We will not be affected in any way whichever one of us is right.
      February 20, 2023 9:05 AM MST
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