Is Knowledge Infinite?

[Gober]

Will we one day know everything there is to know about everything? Or is knowledge infinite and no matter how much we advance and learn as a society we will never know it all?

Warning be advised, if you say knowledge is infinite it has a drastic consequence I will attempt to explain after a few responses to the original question.

[Deleted]

I'd say at least knowledge in a wider sense is infinite since humans create more information to be known all the time. I guess it's impossible for us to reach a point at which we know everything that ever happened anywhere on our planet the second it happens and more important: before anything else happens. On top of that: saying we can someday know everything there is to know would result in the fact that we couldn't advance anymore, which would be kind of sad in my opinion. Yet maybe if you onlay take into account the "important" knowledge and leave aside what I mentioned in the beginning we can someday really know everything that is worth knowing.

Though still it's highly unrealistic that we would know everything since we can't even reach other universes in realistic timespans.

[cubby]

It is a logical impossibility to answer that question. However, knowing that we'll never know serves to promote the idea that knowledge might indeed be infinite.

But we'll never know.

[Cracked]

Literally infinite? no. Realistically obtainable(all of it)? neither.

[Deleted]

I don't know.

In one way it is. Why? Because we humans are always inventing new things, when we think that we did all the possible, then out of the sudden, bang, there's something new. So I think that knowledge could be infinite.

In another way it might not be, but not for long, for the reason I stated above. In some specific time, we invent something and that something has no more possibilities, ending the infinite knowledge thing.

But I still think knowledge can be infinite because we are always inventing new things.

[Gober]

We'll I believe knowledge is infinite. So on the basis that knowledge I will make this argument.

Imagine knowledge on a number line stretching from zero to infinite. If that is true the problem is now matter much much we know at any point on that line, we know next to zero because infinity keeps growing making our conception of current know smaller and smaller and close and closer to zero.

Soo...The conclusion is inescapable our knowledge will always be rapidly approaching zero. TLDR we will never have any knowledge of anything.

[Darksoldierr]

I dont belive humanity will ever achive a lever what you thinking about, personally i dont even belive we will live trough this century. As for knowledge itself, thats definitely a good question. Its definitely close to infinite but if its on this size of that limit or beyond, no idea

[Beavis]

The answer is self-evident: nobody knows.

[ptwonline]

Logically speaking, no it cannot be infinite. Things that are known have to be stored in a medium somehow (etched on a medium, residing chemically in a brain, etc) and if it literally was infinite then the medium it is stored in would also have to be inifinite and every single bit of space would have to be used to house that storage medium. The universe is big, but not literally infinite.

Perhaps you mean "without limit", which is not the same as infinite.

[Underverse]

No. There are only so many combinations of particles in the universe. Information is particles arranged in a particular way. Since matter and energy are both finite, knowledge must be finite as well.

Still a pretty high number though.

[Deleted]

Will we one day know everything there is to know about everything? Or is knowledge infinite and no matter how much we advance and learn as a society we will never know it all?

Warning be advised, if you say knowledge is infinite it has a drastic consequence I will attempt to explain after a few responses to the original question.

Who is we? We will never learn it all because we cannot. Not to mention that people are seldom rational and they choose to have a belief system and blindly follow social customs, instead of being interested in reality.

How many atoms are there in your house, OP? Let's see the day when a human will find that thing alone.

[Lora]

As long as individuals and species exist, yes. Personality is something that is always new and different. Some people may have characteristics of others but that does not make them those people. We should hope that knowledge is infinite so we can continue to have a relative sense of purpose.

[Shalaman]

No, because over time knowledge is erased

[cubby]

Logically speaking, no it cannot be infinite. Things that are known have to be stored in a medium somehow (etched on a medium, residing chemically in a brain, etc) and if it literally was infinite then the medium it is stored in would also have to be inifinite and every single bit of space would have to be used to house that storage medium. The universe is big, but not literally infinite.

Perhaps you mean "without limit", which is not the same as infinite.

What do you think the difference between "infinite" and "without limit"?

[Deleted]

Knowing everything would be boooooooooriiiiing ;(

[Mnevis]

I think that knowledge of the current and past states of the universe is finite, because I think the universe is finite (sort of). Knowledge, so abstractly defined, would include knowledge of the future, and I don't know about that. I'd tend towards saying that "Knowledge is infinite".

[Nengal]

Quite possible. Some say infinity is not a real concept and that nothing is infinite; however, no one can know this. The Universe 'could' be infinite. The human mind cannot comprehend the concept of infinity - never ending. Just because it can't be comprehended doesn't mean it's false.

I would dare to say that it is likely that knowledge is infinite.

[sam86]

Not infinite but insanely huge

[apepi]

http://www.comedycentral.com/video-c...icroscope-lens

This episode dives into this subject, at the end after they discover everything, Fransworth wonders why stuff happened that certain way when it could have happened another way. Also people will always argue about philosphy, the topics are very subjective and not explainable. Though that is not science.

[Dassen]

I'd say it's impossible to know. It's simply not possible. I cannot fathom a way that we would be able to decide "Nope. There's nothing more. Now we know everything.", surely human arrogance cannot stretch far enough for us to make such a claim.

Wait, wait, hold on. That's an oxymoron. I guess I think it's probably infinite, but we can't ever say for sure.