You Can’t Know Everything

We are constantly searching for an explanation for our existence, as if this explanation would be the solution to all of our problems.

There is a group of physicists that are searching for (and believe in) a Theory of Everything. A theory that would explain the entire inner workings of the universe, predict the future, and more.

There are plenty of people that believe that there is a simple answer for everything, when in reality the world is infinitely complex.

There ARE simple answers in certain domains, but not in others. There are simple answers in the Gaussian domain of physics explaining certain properties of the appearance of our world as it is (motion, thermodynamics, etc.), however there are not simple answers in the non-Gaussian domain, i.e. the domain where living organisms interact with one another in myriad ways that produce an infinitely complex web of interactions. Furthermore, even in the Gaussian domain, you won’t find an answer as to why the equations of physics are the way they are. Why is the speed of light 300,000 km/s?

“If I only knew why I didn’t get job X,” you say, “then I could continue on with my normal routine and work on correcting my faults, and everything would be great.” That’s true… hell, even if you can’t find the TRUE reason, any answer that is somewhat in the ballpark of truth will work here. But… the point here is that the answer to that question doesn’t solve the riddle of life. Once you find out “why” you didn’t get job X, you now move on to other life problems to solve.

But what about the answer to the riddle of life, the Theory of Everything? The answer to “Why are we here?”

Firstly, why would even want to know the answer to that question? It doesn’t give you the same satisfaction as finding out why you didn’t get job X. And why doesn’t it? Because once you find out why you didn’t get job X, you can now go about figuring out, for example, other ways to feed your family, and to sustain your family. That is, you go on to solve relevant (and solvable) life problems. But once you answer the question to the riddle of life itself, what is there to go on to? You, my friend, have now run out of questions to ask. And what is the point of life if you know absolutely everything? 

Secondly, that is a question that can’t be answered. You can’t solve the riddle of life. It is futile. It is like a 2D organism trying to explain a 3D world. Questions about “why didn’t I get job X?” are relevant questions, regardless of whether they have a 100% true answer, because they relate to us. Questions about the nature of our existence are futile because you in fact are a 2D organism living in a 3D world (or a 3D organism living in X-dimension world, where X is greater than 3, obviously). You would be a fool to spend the entirety of your life searching to figure out the equations of God. LIVE YOUR LIFE.