Human Knowledge Has Limits!   Leave a comment

What we will never know, and what we can know!

Please Note; this post is for the scientifically minded, and not just for everyone! Excerpts are credited to a post by Ryan F. Mandelbaum               (with added comments from this blogger)

Mr Mandelbaum is a science communicator specializing in quantum computing and birds:

There is a realm the laws of physics forbid us from accessing, below the resolving power of our most powerful microscopes and beyond the reach of our most sensitive telescopes. There’s no telling what might exist there.

Since the beginning of human inquiry, there have been limits to our observing abilities. Quantum mechanics and the Standard Model of Particle Physics have worked wonders at clarifying what goes on inside of atoms. However, with each of these successful theories comes hard-and-fast limits to our observing abilities. Today, these limits seem to define true boundaries to our knowledge.

On the large end, there is a speed limit that caps what we can see. It hampers any hope for us to observe most of our universe first-hand. The speed of light is more than just a speed limit. So we must contend with several horizons beyond which we can’t interact.

Another boundary lives on the other end of the scale called the ‘Planck scale’, the smallest meaningful numbers that quantum mechanics allows us to define. Zoom in between molecules, into the center of atoms, deep into their nuclei and into the quarks that make up their protons and neutrons. It’s a built-in limit to our understanding of the universe.

These fundamental limits, large and small, present clear barriers to our knowledge.
Our theories tell us that we will never directly observe what lies beyond these cosmic horizons or what structures exist smaller than the Planck scale. However, the answers to some of the grandest questions we ask ourselves might exist beyond those very walls. Why and how did the universe begin? What lies beyond our universe? Why do things look and act the way that they do? Why do things exist? Exploring the unanswerable belongs to philosophy or religion.

Walls that stop us from easily answering our deepest questions about the universe… well, they don’t feel very nice to think about. But offering some comfort is the fact that 93 billion light-years is very big, and 10^-35 meters is very small. Between the largest and the smallest is a staggering space full of things we don’t but ‘theoretically can know’.

Through a variety of tests on Earth and throughout the universe, physicists have measured no changes in time or space for any of the fundamental constants of nature.
There are 28 numbers that completely determine all the physics of the known universe. In many experiments, nobody has ever observed any variation in the fundamental constants. While physicists continue to search for a new theory to replace the incompatible Standard Model and general relativity, it appears that the constants we know and love are here to stay.

Indeed, some things may always be beyond human knowledge. For example the Bible teaches:

“By faith we perceive that the systems of things were put in order by God’s word, so that what is seen has come into existence from things that are not visible.” (Hebrews 11:3), also that God exists “from everlasting to everlasting.” (Psalm 90:2) In other words, God had no beginning and will have no end. From a human point of view, “the number of his years is beyond (human) comprehension.”​ (Job 36:26) and finally “…we will never find out the work that the true God has made from start to finish.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

Please visit my post; “From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained!”                  https://wp.me/pWQGc-JU

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