Absolute Knowledge

Here we go again.  Another oft used term that I feel is poorly understood by the community as a whole, and certainly by those who have a tendency to use it.

Believe it or not, in my experience, people's issues with the concepts surrounding this term stem less from the word knowledge (though there are issues there), and more from the word absolute.  (I know, absolutely shocking!)

Really though, it couldn't be simpler.  While the effects of absolute knowledge may be complicated and intricate, the definition is not.  If you have absolute knowledge, you know everything.

EVERYTHING.  This, I think, is where people start to struggle.  Everything is a fuckin' lot of things.  It's not tons of things, or most of things; it is all of the things.

When I say all, I seriously mean all.  All is bigger than the universe.  All is bigger than a googol (not to be confused Google, though they're close) which is a number that is roughly twenty orders of magnitude larger than the number of atoms in the universe.  All is bigger than infinity.

All includes everything physical.  It includes everything not physical.  It encompasses the universe, and whatever lies outside of it.  It counts other universes.  It includes alternate dimensions.  All counts time in its entirety, both past and future.  Even moments of time that didn't actually happen!  All means every possible outcome for every possible situation that every possible thing has encountered in ever.  All means every impossible outcome for every impossible situation that every impossible thing has encountered in never.

Get the picture?

Alright, so now what?  Well, for starters, fuck school, amiright?  Sure.  But while you're at it, you might as well forget everything else.  Absolute knowledge ruins everything you do.

If you knew everything, then you'd already know how this post ends, so you wouldn't need to keep reading.  (Seriously though, you don't know everything so keep reading, you arrogant bastard.)

 

Everything you would do would be a repetition.  Just like how you remember things you've done in the past, you would have knowledge, or "memory," of things you will do in the future.  When time catches up to that moment (supposing time still holds any meaning for you at this point) you will know everything that will happen, in the order it will happen, exactly perfectly.

At best this means that the entire rest of your existence (potentially eternity) will be spent doing things you've effectively already done.  Your life is now dictated by fate, so to speak, like a familiar and well-rehearsed play. Do this at this time, then this at this time, with you unable to make any changes.  Any "changes" you wanted to have made would already be known well ahead of time, and part of the play from the beginning.

At worst?  You basically cease to exist.  A kiddie ride car on rails can hardly be considered a real car.  Sure you're moving toward a destination, and yes, you did make the choice to travel to that destination, but you don't have to do anything to make that happen.  It just sort of happens to you.  You don't get to do anything that hasn't been plotted out along this pre-determined path.

Absolute knowledge is not a good thing.  It's an impassable brick wall.  It is a force that destroys your, and anyone else's, ability to find anything new, to learn, to progress.

Imperfect knowledge is what should be embraced.  It means we still have the potential for discovery, the potential to forge on into new worlds of possibility.  We still have the ability to create things never before seen, never before known. 

 And without that, what do we really have?