unknown swan
date
Mar 20, 2020
slug
unknown-swan
status
Published
tags
type
Post
AI keywords
summary
Life is the sum of existence and non-existence.
Where there is existence, non-existence also exists. To accept existence necessitates the acceptance of non-existence. Even our understanding of existence is quite limited, while we have not yet begun to comprehend non-existence. Without grasping the knowledge of non-existence, one cannot fully understand existence.
Thus, based on the classic example, the statement "all swans are white" remains true until one observes a single black swan. The black swan is hidden in non-existence, and the moment you touch upon the knowledge of non-existence, the understanding of existence transforms completely; swans are both black and white.
Only someone with complete knowledge of both existence and non-existence can assert that their knowledge is certain and true. A sage of non-existence, knowing all about non-existence, can claim that "all swans are either black or white," and at that moment, they would be right.
Consider if mankind were blind by nature, would the moon still be there?
Pythagoras believed in the certainty of numbers and regarded their existence as the guarantee of final and true knowledge. He taught this to his students in his school, which resembled a sect. The discovery of irrational numbers, like the never-ending number pi, was a profound shock for Pythagoras, and he chose to conceal this from the public. The revelation of this secret by Hippasus led to his alleged death by the hands of Pythagoras's followers.
Historical examples of concealing knowledge from the public are numerous; for instance, the Mayans in AD 600.
The advancement of civilization has been possible through the transformation of knowledge into material. Water always boiled, but steam engines that turned gears were a product of discoveries made in the realm of non-existence.
When purchasing a smartphone, you pay for transistors made from silicon, a material transformed by knowledge. In other words, you are paying for the knowledge that discovered non-existence.
The quantum physicist John Archibald Wheeler encapsulates this view as "it from bit," reflecting the notion that the essence of reality emerges from information. George Gilder advances this idea, asserting that "mind is over matter."
Widely accepted truths based on the entities surrounding us are for the weak. Imagine the black swan hidden in the void.