Although Nicholas Humphrey would disagree with me, I'm on your side when you suggest that science is expanding and providing a never-ending geyser of interesting and profound problems. One of my heroes, Isaac Asimov, had the key when he wrote, "I believe that scientific knowledge has fractal properties; that no matter how much we learn, whatever is left, however small it may seem, is just as infinitely complex as the whole was to start with. That, I think, is the secret of the Universe."

On the other hand, I do believe that there will be facets of the universe from which we will always be shielded, because our brains will not have the capacity for such understanding. Can a gorilla understand calculus or gravitational wave theory? Computers will no doubt be of immense help, allowing us to reason beyond some of these cognitive limits.

Consider that around four billion years ago, living creatures were nothing more than biochemical machines capable of self-reproduction. In a mere fraction of this time, humans evolved from creatures like Australopithecines. Today humans have wandered the Moon and have studied ideas ranging from general relativity to quantum cosmology. Once space travel begins in earnest our descendants will leave the confinement of Earth. We will evolve into intelligent simulations—machines that think, love, dream. I agree with theoretical physicist Freeman J. Dyson who suggested there will always be new frontiers to explore:

And remember that science includes the sense of wonder. Richard Powers had it right:

CLIFFORD PICKOVER is a research staff member at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center and author of The Paradox of God and the Science of Omniscience. [more....]