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Gifts for all occasions in the Galleria! The "What is the Deal?" Deal-of-the-Week: Snow and Ski Getaways January 2, 2005 What is the Deal with Knowledge? By Jan A. Larson As people around the world celebrate the artificial and arbitrary demarcation of time known as the New Year, pundits and prognosticators turn to reflection on the 365 days past and anticipation of the 12 months hence. I have also used this symbolic turning of the page as an opportunity to reflect on our place in space and time. I recently overheard someone say that she believed that when we die, that is the end. That is, she believed that there is no afterlife. I did not engage this person into a discussion of her beliefs, but it occurred to me that her belief that there is no afterlife relies every bit as much on faith as do the beliefs of those that trust that we will live on after our worldly bodies cease to function. As fervently as advocates of each of these positions may believe that they are right, there is no way to prove, to the standards of science, that one is right and the other is wrong. Of course, both views cannot be correct. Our consciousness, our being or our soul either continues after death or it does not. We simply do not know since the doorway through which we travel at the moment of death is a one-way portal. Another item that caused me to think about things that we do not know or understand was the recent PBS series, "The Elegant Universe." The series examines the work of Issac Newton, Albert Einstein and other physicists in their quest to arrive at a unifying theory to explain the universe. This series, which does an outstanding job of bringing abstract concepts such as space-time and multiple dimensions into layman's terms, can still cause one's head to hurt. The reason I have given these two subjects some thought recently is that they both demonstrate the concept that there are many things that we know we don't know. Most people, except the extremely idle minded, have an innate curiosity to learn about the things they don't know. That is why we read, travel, watch TV (although much of what we learn from television might be best left unknown) and search the Internet. Two categories of knowledge, namely the things we know we know and the things we know we don't know, are easy to understand. We can seek to transfer bits of information from the second category into the first by simply researching them. There is a third category of knowledge that most people don't take the time to consider, that being the things we don't know we don't know. For example, unless you know me personally or know my family, you don't know my sister's middle name. In fact, until this moment, you didn't know that I had a sister. In other words, you didn't know that you didn't know my sister's middle name (which happens to be Lyn). This bit of information has now suddenly been transferred into your "things you know you know" category. You can now proudly proclaim that you know Jan Larson's sister's middle name. I have described these three categories of knowledge (along with two additional categories) here. You're probably asking why I would write about a somewhat esoteric subject in the first place and further, are probably wondering what this has to do with the New Year. My point is that those that are rehashing everything that occurred in 2004 and offering their critiques are doing so from the perspective of what they know now. That is, the events of the past year are written from hindsight that is always 20/20. The people being critiqued, however, certainly didn't have the benefit of hindsight and just as certainly didn't know what they didn't know at the time they took the actions that led to those events. Those offering prognostications for 2005 are doing so only from the perspective of what they know they don't know. They are making educated guesses, based on the past, as to what may transpire in the future. What they do not and cannot consider is the third category of knowledge, that is, the things they don't know they don't know. The things that are not known today will certainly render many forecasts meaningless. Of course, we already know that. The cultural, social, political and media elites always speak from the perspective of what they know they know. They know (or at least think they know) everything about the particular subject and want us, the unwashed masses, to know it too. When busybody elites try to impose their narrow views of what is acceptable for you and me to eat, think, say, watch, read or do, they are often ignoring not only what they know they don't know but also what they don't know they don't know. I find the realization that there is likely so very, very much of the knowledge of the universe that is beyond the grasp of the human mind very humbling. With that in mind, I try to make an honest effort to temper my viewpoints with the realization that there is much that I know I don't know and likely much more that I don't know that I don't know. In the mean time, I will continue to seek to expand the reservoir of things I know I know, as should we all. -- Send feedback to the author. The "What is the Deal?" column will appears weekly on the Pie of Knowledge website. Guest submissions are welcome and encouraged. To submit an article to "What is the Deal?" click here. 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