What We Know

We know that we know some things.

We also know that we don't know other things.

And we also know that we know only a part - a very small part - of all that is known to humankind, in all the world, for all times.

And we may not know - but we can bet - that there is no one who knows all that is known, even if all known things are written in wikipedia.

But we may know something that the whole wide world don't.

Yes, the probability is very very small, ie very improbable, but it is still very possible, ie not impossible, as that is one way how discoveries and inventions had happened, and will continue to happen.

More fundamentally there are things knowable and things unknowable.

We know these too, and we also know that of things knowable, all may not be known now, even if we know fundamentally that they are knowable.

An example of a thing that is a known unknowable, is the exact position and exact momentum of a particle at any point in time, namely the Heisenberg Principle. This unknowability is a fundamental one in that it is beyond our reasoning and perception, for all efforts, for all time. And of course many people don't know this uncertainty principle, not that it matters to them anyway.

Another known unknowable thing is some aspects of history for which no trace whatsoever survived over time. What is knowable is only whatever perceptible to humans.

And we also know the future is unknowable.

Of the things known to be knowable - or so we think - an example could be all the proteins that the human chromosomes can generate.

Of course there are always things that is unknowable now if it is knowable or not, for example, the question, are we alone in the Universe.

And last, and most intriguingly, is the possibility that a person can know a thing that is unknowable.

How can it be so?

Things knowable are those accessible to our knowledge by means of reason and perception. But certainly there are things inaccessible by mere reason and perception. And so are there other ways of knowing apart from these?

I think there are.

PS: We can summarise all these into a cube with each axis having two values, namely, (Know, Don't Know), (Known, Unknown), and (Knowable, Unknowable).