Insurmountable Ignorance

For Socrates, to whom this phrase is attributed, wisdom stems precisely from the recognition of ignorance. It is, at least for me, a good starting point if you wish to grow in knowledge. Although science always validates its theories against reality empirically, this phrase is in its DNA, for it is the engine that allows it to keep moving forward. There are many examples, but the truth is that this ignorance, though temporary, is what allows us to discover new realities.

Let’s consider two people who know and master a physical concept, for instance, both study the Big Bang theory. One of them has no doubts about the Big Bang as the origin of the universe; the other, with the same level of knowledge on the subject, affirms that it is so but admits to having doubts. Could we really say that the one who has doubts does so because they don’t master the subject? Would we choose the one without doubts over the other because we prefer certainty and the unquestioned? It’s an interesting exercise to consider how we accept or reject ideas based on the certainty they provide, without realizing that greater doubt might allow us to learn and progress further.

Insurmountable ignorance would be that which arises from an inability, lack of knowledge, to go beyond or to doubt what is known. Your certainties may not be shared by others, but if you lack sufficient capacity or knowledge, you will not be able to doubt them, and they will be your truth, whereas for the other person, even if they are true, they present some contradiction that prevents them from being the “ultimate truth.” A clear example is the Big Bang, which I have discussed in another article in my personal blog, where an increasing number of physicists assert that the Big Bang cannot be spoken of as the event that originated the universe, but rather as an episode that helps resolve the apparent contradiction of the singularity, which has no place in the physics we know. Other scientists argue that accepting the singularity of a black hole or the Big Bang, with infinite density and gravity, means acknowledging that physics breaks down, and therefore, they propose alternatives to resolve that contradiction, since defending its existence is to admit that from that point on, physics cannot operate, there are no applicable physical rules or laws, and one enters the realm of the “magical.” Quantum mechanics prohibits infinity.

My personal conclusion

Recognizing your own ignorance helps and allows you to grow; others who do see beyond can provide you with the knowledge you lack, and by doing so, and accepting this, you will be able to see what you could not see before. Those who doubt may not do so out of a lack of knowledge or training; perhaps they have more experience than you and allow themselves to doubt, and from doubt, knowledge and new theories always emerge. And now, to wrap things up and as a teaser for an upcoming blog post, Gödel’s theorem’s contribution to science and, in particular, to mathematics. He revealed to us that truth is a category superior to provability, and intuition allows us to go beyond the limitations of a formalized mathematical system.