Can we know everything?

In Babylon 5, species with histories going back millions of years are mentioned. Combine this with the history of science and one thought emerges: can we ever learn everything there is to know about the Universe?

It's a truism that we'll never know everything. that every development and discovery raises more questions and unknowns. To a large extent this is so. Even something as simple as measuring the average rotational speed of stars in distant galaxies can lead to recalcitrant questions. On the other hand in just over a hundred years we've made discoveries about the intimate nature of matter and energy, space and time, gravity, the structure of the Universe and many other things. Yet on the gripping hand, mysteries remain not only in the far frontiers of science, but in something as basic as how soot forms and various problems in Newtonian dynamics.

And yet we've advanced substantially in every field, though much remains to be learned.

In some scientific popularizations, much is made that late XIX century scientists thought their work was nearly at an end. That everything that could be discovered had been. This is not quite true, though some scientists expressed such views. Of course shortly thereafter things like relativity and quantum theory burst on the scene.

I think it's this urban legend, if I may call it that, which is responsible for the notion that we'll never learn everything.

Consider late XIX Century technology and science, then contrast it with today's state of the art in both fields. Now imagine science, and technology which is in important in making new discoveries, advancing over the next hundred years, then the next, and the next, and so on for millions of years.

If one thing limits us it will be the sheer size of the universe and the speed of light. I've no doubt, for example, that within a relatively short time in historical terms we'll have probes, at the least, examining distant stars and planets. I cannot imagine ever our artifacts or ourselves reaching distant galaxies, however.

Quote: Nareed

In Babylon 5, species with histories going back millions of years are mentioned. Combine this with the history of science and one thought emerges: can we ever learn everything there is to know about the Universe?

It's a truism that we'll never know everything. that every development and discovery raises more questions and unknowns. To a large extent this is so. Even something as simple as measuring the average rotational speed of stars in distant galaxies can lead to recalcitrant questions. On the other hand in just over a hundred years we've made discoveries about the intimate nature of matter and energy, space and time, gravity, the structure of the Universe and many other things. Yet on the gripping hand, mysteries remain not only in the far frontiers of science, but in something as basic as how soot forms and various problems in Newtonian dynamics.

And yet we've advanced substantially in every field, though much remains to be learned.

In some scientific popularizations, much is made that late XIX century scientists thought their work was nearly at an end. That everything that could be discovered had been. This is not quite true, though some scientists expressed such views. Of course shortly thereafter things like relativity and quantum theory burst on the scene.

I think it's this urban legend, if I may call it that, which is responsible for the notion that we'll never learn everything.

Consider late XIX Century technology and science, then contrast it with today's state of the art in both fields. Now imagine science, and technology which is in important in making new discoveries, advancing over the next hundred years, then the next, and the next, and so on for millions of years.

If one thing limits us it will be the sheer size of the universe and the speed of light. I've no doubt, for example, that within a relatively short time in historical terms we'll have probes, at the least, examining distant stars and planets. I cannot imagine ever our artifacts or ourselves reaching distant galaxies, however.

Not a huge star wars fan but I love the beginning.
A long time ago in galaxy far far away.
The universe is so old and big, Great massive civilizations may have come and gone. Who knows. Maybe we are being watched right now.
Maybe we are alone. Maybe not.
Just too much to try to comprehend.

Well there is too much information. You cannot control a universe while being bound by it and you cannot know everything about it because you don't have time and don't control it. Maybe you can imagine knowing everything, but it turns out there is a limit as always. To be God, sorry buddy, you have to be able to exit the universe. I don't even think we'll be able to leave the observable portion without breaking the speed of light. Transversing the universe, how could we even deal with time distortions and keeping communication. Well we'll hand over the keys from our monkey hands to the computers by the end of the century so it will have to be up to them anyways.