We’re at the Beginning of an Infinity of Knowledge

The difference with "The Beginning of Infinity" is that you're getting a worldview. You're not being given the standard take from physicists about how to understand quantum theory. You're not being given the standard take of how to understand knowledge from philosophers, and you're certainly not being given the standard take of how to understand mathematics from mathematicians.

Deutsch is qualified in all these areas; he's an expert in all these areas. So, the worldview itself—what's at the core of it? Deutsch's worldview is that reality is comprehensible. Problems are soluble. It's a deeply rationally optimistic worldview. It believes in good explanations, good scientific explanations, and progress.

Progress is inevitable as long as we have these good explanations. Good explanations have tremendous reach; they are acts of creativity. Humans are problem solvers and can solve all problems. All sins and evil are due to a lack of knowledge. One can be optimistic about constant progress.

That's what the title "The Beginning of Infinity" refers to: that we're at the beginning of an infinite series of progress. It's a very optimistic take. It believes that we are at home in the universe; the universe is ours as a resource to learn about and exploit. That material wealth is a set of physical transformations that we can affect.

Everything that is not forbidden by the laws of physics is eventually possible through knowledge and knowledge creation. He also talks about how humans are universal explainers. That anything that can be known and understood can be known and understood by human beings in the computational power of a human system.

It's all knowable; it's all noble by humans. We're the beginning of an infinity of knowledge. As we understand things using good explanations and we create new theories that are constantly being destroyed and replaced by better ones, there's no endpoint in sight. There's no perfection; every theory can be falsified and improved.

That we are on our way to being able to do everything that is not forbidden by the laws of physics.

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