Certainty
Important Note: when I use the term 'certainty', I mean absolute 100% no-possibility-of-being-wrong certain. Nothing less.
What we might call 'practical certainty', meaning we are close enough for everyday purposes, is a sensible and rational concept, but should not be confused with 'certainty' as I am using it here. OK? ;-)
For practical purposes, no human can be certain of anything in the real world. Within your own mind, you can be 'certain' that you are thinking something, or that you believe something, and so on. But everything you know about the 'real world' comes via your perceptions. Wonderful though they are, we know from long experience that human perception is far from infallible. Worse, when we *are* wrong, we can't tell. To us, the wrong perception seems as accurate as the correct one.
So absolute certainty is denied to us. Where does that leave us? Exactly where we were. This has always been the case. The lack of certainty doesn't drag us into a quagmire of chaos!
We can still be very very sure of things, more than sure enough for everyday purposes. I would be surprised if I let go of my tea-cup and it didn't drop to the floor. I expect you would too. ;-) And yet it isn't certain. Is this a problem? No. The likelihood of my tea-cup floating where I let go of it, and not falling to the floor is pretty small. Remember: just because something is not-certainly-true, this does NOT mean it's false! [See Binary Logic] It might be 99.999999999999999% likely and still not be certain.
So why does certainty matter, if 'practical certainty' continues to work for us as it always has (i.e. most of the time)? There are a number of reasons, but perhaps the most important is attitude:
In a world where nothing is certain, everything is possible (however unlikely it may be)! This attitude puts us in the correct frame of mind to recognise something new. Think about it the other way around: if you are CERTAIN that gravity will cause my cup to fall, you won't even look for it not happening. You'd be wasting your time, wouldn't you, when you know beyond all doubt that it can't happen? ;-)
Feynman summed it up beautifully, as ever: "In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar." If you're unready, or even unable, to recognise something new, you'll miss it, and the discovery will pass you by. You may even see it, and convince yourself that you perceived wrongly; it couldn't've happened, so it didn't happen!
Certainty: an intellectual curiosity (for a human).
Pattern-chaser
"Who cares, wins"
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