"WE DON'T KNOW one millionth of one per cent of anything", einstein said, when, as always, he was confronted with a butt kissing journalist inquiring about his role in enlightening the universe for human inspection. Are we on the verge of understanding everything, dr einstein? will we ever understand everything, dr einstein? well, hell no.
Einstein, again in response to a stupid question, once said that in his entire life he had had about two original ideas, and that the only time his scientific knowledge every yielded any practical benefit was when he gently informed his wife that it is useless to boil liver, because the boiling point is lower than the temperature needed for cooking.
Einstein was humble, because he was smart enough to be humble, because he understood that the human capacity for understanding the vast universe appears quite inadequate. Humility, for a human being, is appropiate, its the only way to go, and smart people tend to understand that.
Consider the world of electromagnetic radiation, energy, one of the four forces of nature, along with gravity, and the two nuclear forces. Every moment of our lives we are awash in it, though we don't even know it, don't see it, hear it, smell it, taste it, or touch it.
Radio, broadcast television, telephones...our electronic devices bathe us in an ocean of radiation which may be killing us slowly, without our even knowing it. But what a fun way to go.
We know that the technology of invisibility is no big deal. Any extraterrestrial beings with intelligence could easily hover above us in huge spacecraft, utterly unknown to us.
We would be shocked if we knew how many wild animals are lurking near when we go to bed at night. But at least we made it through another halloween.
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