We act as if we do understand the world. Because it takes away a lot of existential stress in our lives. We create mind models. And we think, we convince ourselves, that we understand the world, that we know everything. But, really, we know nothing.

Sometimes I suddenly realize how little we know about everything, about anything, really. We know really practically zero. And that very thought is unbearable. Because if you know nothing, anything can happen to you without you even seeing it coming. We live in an existential reality of uncertainty.

Just think of it, a meteorite could easily one day destroy or even vanisht our planet. An epidemic like covid that is both contageous and lethal could kill all of humanity in a matter of weeks. Global warming could smother all mammalian life on earth. Instability of our star, the sun, eg. extreme solar flares, could kill all life in our entire solar system. We have no idea what happened on Mars a billion years ago. And so on, and so on.

But there is more. We think we have made great progress the last, say, thousand years in science. We have relativity theory, quantum physics, string theory. But it could all be wrong. Universal reality could well turn out to be very different from our scientific reality. We have no clue about dark matter, for instance. And what is a molecule or an atom, really? Science is merely our very best guess, our best approximation. And so on, and so on.

Finally, one other example. Here’s an interesting article in a Dutch newspaper about scientist/artist, Lotte Pet. It focuses on our very limited ideas about biological life. Here’s a quote from the article, translated into English:

Amid the rapid developments in biotechnology, such as genetic modification and stem cell research, important ethical questions arise. What happens if we tinker with human genes? And what if we modify the human germline? Where does this lead? “The answers are often missing,” says Lotte Pet (34), who completed her PhD in humanities with honors at Leiden University this month. “This is because we have a limited idea of ​​what biological life entails. Biological life is complex and unpredictable. Nevertheless, we must make ethical decisions about what research into biological life we ​​do and do not want to conduct.”

Ms. Lotte Pet investigated bioethical dilemmas using art. “The complexity of biological life exceeds our understanding and requires a new ethical approach,” she explains. “I want to discover how bioart can contribute to an ethical attitude towards this elusive life.”

(…)

“A well-known example of bio art is the fluorescent rabbit Alba, by the bio artist Eduardo Kac.” The rabbit had been genetically modified with jellyfish genes. “This caused Alba to glow green under UV light.”

Just a nice example of what is to come the next years, decennia and ages ahead. A lot of things that might have been thinkable with a lot of fantasy, will soon be feasible. And, what will be feasible, will be done, sooner or later. Just like the Chinese scientist, He Jiankui, did modify the DNA of two twin girls before birth. Despite ethical considerations, whatever is possible will be done, one day. And probably, someone, somewhere is already doing it … secretly.

Equally interesting is the idea, that extra-terrestrial life will be quite different from life we know. We automatically think that living creatures require oxygen. But that is not necessarily true. Maybe, life on far away planets is possible using hydrogen, ammonia or even sulfur as a source of energy. Or, maybe, there are life forms, that go completely beyond our imagination. Who knows? Nobody, really.

And yet

Yet, we cannot live with this degree of uncertainty and ignorance. We need certainty and predictability. That is a serious limitation of our brain, and an evolutionary survival mechanism. Our brain invented a trick. We act as if we do understand the world. Because it takes away a lot of existential stress in our lives. We create mind models. Images of the world that we do not know, hoping that we can somehow predict the next few seconds, hours and maybe days of our life, increasing our chances of survival.

We know nothing

And we think, we convince ourselves, that we understand the world, that we know everything. But, really, we know nothing.

Amen.