Infinite Knowledge And The Finite Mind

Infinite Knowledge And The Finite Mind

by

R.E. Prindle

The world is fast approaching a very perilous situation. It is not a question of human perfidy but the unavoidable consequence of the accumulation of knowledge. While accumulated knowledge is growing exponentially the human mind is diminishing in capacity compounded by a concentration on the wrong things.

The ability to organize and manage the exploding quantity of knowledge exceeds the ability of the human mind to synthesize. The fraction of knowledge the ablest, the most capacious human minds can absorb is miniscule. The problem is compounded by our very inadequate educational system based on favoritism rather than merit. The level of the best is inexorably drawn down.

The problem of barely educating the most intelligent and mentally capable percentage of the population that amounts to no more than fifteen percent of the total within a reasonable time, say 30 years of age, is made difficult to impossible by the basic needs of the individual- maturation, sex, indolence, hazards such as drugs and alochol, mental fixations and illnesses and what have you.

As at least a full fifty percent of the population can be written off as totally incapable of abstract thinking, the remaining thirty-five percent is barely educable and trainable for ordinary tasks.

Even the most intelligent can be educated to only one discipline or a sub-set of a discipline. To be expert, for instance, in the study of proteins is to unfit the individual for most other technical or cultural subjects. Of course in becoming expert in one field does give one an operating method that can be used to transfer to or include another discipline but the effort takes time and dilutes the knowledge of both or more fields. The nature of memory is that it fades if not constantly used. This is unavoidable.

Human nature and envy being what it is the odds are that the most capable may not do well in the social battle while the much less capable are cunning at manipulating others to obtain their ends. Hence we have a politically able but intellectual dimwit serving as President of the United States, as well as, one might add, most other heads of State. They act from ideology rather than circumstances. It would appear that one of the least capable mentalities serving as head of State in North Korea is quite capable of bringing down the whole of civilization from its present precarious state.

There appears to be no solution to this problem. It is merely a bottleneck that the human race will not be able to pass through.

Bozos rule the world and will continue to do so. Hence, enjoy it while you can; it can’t matter. It has just gotten too complex for the human mind to manage.