The End(s) of Knowledge

Can science understand literally everything? Can every mystery of nature eventually be explained given enough research attention and generous funding? Will our knowledge, supplemented by the power of AI, keep growing without bounds? Can truth be found in every raging academic debate?Much of the development of modern mathematics has been shaped -- consciously or not -- by trying to answer these questions.  This book is meant to be an accessible and, hopefully, amusing exploration of the basic and fundamental mathematical principles that limit what can be known and understood. These principles demarcate the boundary fence of science which neither a human nor an artificial mind can see beyond.

List of contents

Chapter 1. Lost in the higher dimensional woods.- Chapter 2. The most incomprehensible thing.- Chapter 3. The noise and the signal.- Chapter 4. Live and learn.- Chapter 5. Out of order, chaos.- Chapter 6. Playing dice with the Universe.- TL;DR.- Bibliography.

About the author

Michael Yampolsky is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Toronto, who is almost, but not quite, entirely not an expert in the subject of this book.

Summary

Can science understand literally everything? Can every mystery of nature eventually be explained given enough research attention and generous funding? Will our knowledge, supplemented by the power of AI, keep growing without bounds? Can truth be found in every raging academic debate?Much of the development of modern mathematics has been shaped -- consciously or not -- by trying to answer these questions.  This book is meant to be an accessible and, hopefully, amusing exploration of the basic and fundamental mathematical principles that limit what can be known and understood. These principles demarcate the boundary fence of science which neither a human nor an artificial mind can see beyond.

Product details

• Authors: Michael Yampolsky
• Publisher: Springer International Publishing
• Languages: English, German
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 12.12.2025
• EAN: 9783032014221
• ISBN: 978-3-032-01422-1
• Illustrations: Approx. 120 p.
• Series: Copernicus Books
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Mathematics; Kommunikationswissenschaft, Wissenschaftsphilosophie und -theorie, Politics, Statistics, Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung und Statistik, Politische Strukturen und Prozesse, Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften, Mathematics, Philosophy of Science, Forecasting, Physics and Astronomy, Political Communication, General Mathematics and Education, human behaviour, boundaries of knowledge, limits of understanding