How Much (Knowledge) is too Much?

originally posted by: Trachel
We're all on a quest for greater knowledge and understanding of this reality. We all seek more information about its nature and mechanics.

But how much is too much?

Once the curtain's been pulled back and the great Oz stands exposed, things suddenly become a lot less interesting. Once you know how this little system operates, much of the intrigue vanishes from life.

Think about it like learning a new game... before you knew all the rules you could simply laugh and enjoy yourself. But once you got caught up in the details you start micromanaging and metagaming to exploit every little filament of potential advantage, giving yourself the best potential to win.

This reality is a lot like that. Back in caveman days we could just run around and thwonk people on the head with our clubs. We didn't need worry about anything like the potential for extinction-level events like asteroids or ice ages.

But now that we're more scientifically mature, suddenly we need address these concerns that before went unnoticed. And with that increased knowledge comes a lot more responsibility--and a lot less enjoyment from life.

So the question is: How much knowledge is too much?

Is having unexplored mysteries the biggest part of the fun? Is subsiding in relative ignorance bliss?

Or would you rather have the curtain pulled back and the whole system exposed?

Knowledge is power, that's why TPTB keep us in the dark. We should learn ALL we can. It enables us to survive, in spite of their sabotage and mind F$%^ks

a reply to: Trachel

I'll have to respectably disagree. Learning about stuff like Pareto's principle, the golden ratio, how nature works, how quantum physics work, how relativity works etc. make my existence so much more meaningful, and don't hinder my ability to juggle practical life at all. I pretty much am learning during most of my spare time and my brain has developed an insatiable appetite for knowledge, knowledge, knowledge! The idea of "too much knowledge" seems almost offensive to me. But everyone is different and have their own levels of capacity. So if you feel overwhelmed by knowledge then by all means stop learning, but there are many minds on this planet that couldn't be more thankful to live in a time where knowledge of any kind is at our fingertips. I feel so lucky to live in this time.

"Knowledge forbidden? Suspicious. Reasonless. Why should their Lord envy them that? Can it be a sin to know? Can it be death?"

-Lucifer , Paradise Lost

When you get to a point when you think you know it all, it's time to lay off and experience. After all, there is a higher form of gnosis... Wisdom. Which only comes through experience. Also cramming your head with too much knowledge leads to one forgetting that they might be wrong. Which is a huge misstep.

I actually do think some people can't tolerate certain facts, as some truths about the world (such as the indeterminacy of truth itself) addles the nervous system and can easily set the mind on a self destructive or other destructive path.

While I will not go so far as Doestevsky does in his "the Grand Inquisitor" tale, I will agree that in order to tolerate and make use of certain types of knowledge, you need certain types of experiences. It helps, for instance, to have someone with you to help your digestion of an experience. To just rush into some types of knowledge without the 'scaffolding' of a supportive context, you can find yourself mentally lost, depressed, and bordering on a state of breakdown.

All i know is i'm depressed 6 out of the 7 days of the week ever since i've found ATS and expanded my knowledge and thinking. You know what they say about blissful ignorance.

a reply to: MrCrow

"When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer"... so, if we knew everything, what more would there be for us?

www.answers.com...

A further possibility is that this is a misquotation from Plutarch's Tranquility of the Mind, quoted below.
"Such contentedness and change of view in regard to every kind of life does the infusion of reason bring about. When Alexander heard from Anaxarchus of the infinite number of worlds, he wept, and when his friends asked him what was the matter, he replied, 'Is it not a matter for tears that, when the number of worlds is infinite, I have not conquered one?'"

Thanks
I too shed tears that I will not see "infinity +1" worlds, but we get an infinite numbers of incarnations so its all good.

King Crimson – Epitaph Lyrics


The wall on which the prophets wrote
Is cracking at the seams
Upon the instruments of death
The sunlight brightly gleams
When every man is torn apart
With nightmares and with dreams,
Will no one lay the laurel wreath
When silence drowns the screams

Confusion will be my epitaph
As I crawl a cracked and broken path
If we make it we can all sit back and laugh,
But I fear tomorrow I'll be crying,
Yes I fear tomorrow I'll be crying
Yes I fear tomorrow I'll be crying

Between the iron gates of fate,
The seeds of time were sown,
And watered by the deeds of those
Who know and who are known;
Knowledge is a deadly friend
When no one sets the rules
The fate of all mankind I see
Is in the hands of fools

The wall on which the prophets wrote
Is cracking at the seams
Upon the instruments of death
The sunlight brightly gleams
When every man is torn apart
With nightmares and with dreams,
Will no one lay the laurel wreath
When silence drowns the screams

Confusion will be my epitaph
As I crawl a cracked and broken path
If we make it we can all sit back and laugh,
But I fear tomorrow I'll be crying,
Yes I fear tomorrow I'll be crying