Do You Know That You Don’t Know?

Do you? What is time, for example?

We live our lives governed by the ticking of the clock, the graying of our hair, and the frantic rush to be “on time” for a morning meeting. We treat time as a solid, undeniable reality. Yet, if you sit down with a theoretical physicist, they will tell you that time is a 4D block—a static map where the past, present, and future exist simultaneously. If you talk to a neuroscientist, they will tell you your brain is a “time-machine” that stretches and compresses seconds based on how much dopamine is flooding your system.

If you talk to religious person he/she will tell you, with certainty, that there is a “god” that knows every second of your life and keeps scores of your mistakes for your whole life. That life started at a specific time and the destiny of the universe is known. Everything is pre-written because of an all-knowing person in the sky. Your pastor, bishop or priest will tell you that there is life after death and you can “live forever” if you satisfy specific “prerequisites”. These stories or unique selling propositions change as you interact with different religious groups or denominations. These groups fight and advertise just like any other industry – spending billions of dollars to capture your loyalty. They pay for super-bowl ads and spend more billions on the movie and other entertainment industries.

We look to science for answers because these are the people with “empirical evidence”. We find that scientists don’t have the answers – well, not yet. We look at the commercialization of some scientific and technology products and realize we have to be skeptical even here as well. There is no “Theory of Everything”. Our “instruments of measurements” are still limited, so some things are still a mystery. General relativity and quantum physics seem to be at odds, at the time of this writing. Our lives are either pre-written or unwritten mysteries.

We are surrounded by “facts,” yet the deeper we dig, the more we realize we are standing on a foundation of beautiful, complex, and highly profitable illusions.

The Market for Certainty

If the universe is truly a mystery – a “fixed-but-foggy” landscape of chaos and quantum probability—why is the world full of people claiming to have the final answer?

From billion-dollar religious institutions and New Age “manifestation” gurus to financial oracles and political pundits, there is a massive commercial value in Certainty.

• The Existential Painkiller: Uncertainty causes anxiety. Human beings will pay a premium to the person who promises them a map of the future.
• The “Cui Bono” Test: When someone claims to “know” the unknowable—what happens after death, the exact path of the stock market, or the “will” of the universe—the first question we must ask is: Who benefits? If a group “knows” what God wants, they can command your time, your lifestyle, and your tithing (money). The “benefit” here is power and institutional wealth. If a guru “knows” how to manifest reality or “hack” time, they can sell you a $5,000 seminar. They are monetizing your desire to control a chaotic system. If “The Truth” requires a monthly subscription or a lifetime of tithing, you aren’t looking at a fact; you are looking at a product.

The Science of Humility

Science doesn’t claim to have the “Truth” with a capital T; it has “The best explanation we have right now that hasn’t been proven wrong yet.”

Science doesn’t deal in “absolute truth.” It deals in models. The Block Universe model is used because it explains Einstein’s math. Chaos Theory is used because it explains why we can’t predict the weather or our own lives despite that math. But even these models have “Singularities” – dark corners where the math breaks and the smartest minds on Earth have to admit: “We don’t know.”

• Dark Matter: 95% of the universe is made of stuff we cannot see or measure. We are trying to explain the “Story of Humanity” while only being able to read 5% of the words on the page.
• Consciousness: Scientists can map the brain, but can’t find where the “Self” lives. They can map every neuron in your brain, but cannot explain why those neurons firing creates the “feeling” of love, the “smell” of coffee, or the “experience” of being late for work.
• The First Cause: Physicists can trace the universe back to a single point, but they cannot tell you who (or what) gave it a nudge. Scientist, however, will not (or cannot) fill this gap with a god. Science continues to search for answers.

Test Claims

You can actually use a simplified version of The Scientific Method combined with Forensic Accounting to test claims of “Knowing”:

The Red Flag Checklist:

• The Paywall: Is the “Truth” hidden behind a subscription, a donation, or a high-priced course?
• The Monopoly: Does the person claim they are the only one who has this knowledge? (Real science is peer-reviewed and shared for free).
• The Ego Benefit: Even if there is no money, does the “Knowing” give the person immense social status or the power to control others?
• The “Prophecy” Failure: If their “Knowledge” of the future (like a market crash or an apocalypse) fails to happen, do they move the goalposts or admit they were wrong?

The “Bullshit Meter”

The Rule of Thumb: If someone is benefiting from a claim that cannot be proven or dis-proven (The Big Questions), the “Bullshit Meter” should be on high alert.

The Knowledge Marketplace

The Socratic Shield

The Socratic Method is essentially another “bullshit detector” in the form of a conversation. It doesn’t aim to prove someone wrong; it aims to help others realize they don’t actually “know” what they claim to know.

The “Definition” Trap

People often use “big” words to hide a lack of evidence. They might say, “The universe wants you to be successful,” or “It is God’s plan.”

• The Socratic Move: Ask for a precise definition of the word they are using as a “fact.”
• The Question: “When you say ‘The Universe,’ do you mean the physical atoms, or are you describing a conscious entity with a personality? If it has a personality, how did you measure its desires?”
• The Result: Usually, the person will realize they are using a metaphor as if it were a literal truth.

The “Exception” Test

If someone claims a “universal fact” (especially one they are selling), ask for the circumstances where it doesn’t work.

• The Socratic Move: Search for a counter-example.
• The Question: “If ‘Positive Thinking’ always leads to wealth, why do millions of hard-working, optimistic people live in poverty? Is it more likely that luck and economics are the actual ‘facts’ here?”
• The Result: If they blame the victim (e.g., “They weren’t thinking positively enough”), you’ve identified a non-falsifiable claim—a hallmark of a scam.

The “Foundational” Why (The Infinite Regress)

This is the most powerful tool for dismantling “experts.” You simply keep asking “Why?” or “How do you know?” until you hit the bottom.

• The Socratic Move: Peel the onion.
  • The Question:
  • Expert: “The market will definitely go up in Q4.”
  • You: “How do you know?”
  • Expert: “Because of these historical cycles.”
  • You: “Why do those cycles happen?”
  • Expert: “Because of human psychology.”
  • You: “How do you know human psychology won’t react differently to the unique technology we have today?”
• The Result: Eventually, they will have to say, “I don’t know,” or “I’m guessing.” That is the moment the “billion-dollar certainty” evaporates.

The reason groups claim to “know” is that uncertainty is expensive. It’s hard to sell a book titled “I’m Not Really Sure What’s Going On.” It’s hard to build a church around the phrase “We’ll Find Out When We Get There.”

By using the Socratic Method, you are essentially refusing to pay the “Certainty Tax.” You are accepting the “Illusion” of time and the “Mystery” of existence for free, rather than buying a fake version of the truth.

In a world where certainty is for sale, the most powerful tool you own is the Socratic Method. By asking “Why?” and “How do you know?”, you peel back the layers of ego and profit that cover the core of our existence.

When you stop paying the “Certainty Tax,” something strange happens: the “illusion” of time becomes a masterpiece rather than a prison. You realize that you aren’t a victim of time moving past you; you are a conscious observer experiencing a 4D story that is too vast and too chaotic to ever be “spoiled.”

The Ultimate Fact

We might simply be incapable of knowing the truth – with our limited brain power.

The only definitive fact we possess is our own Subjective Experience. You know that you feel the sun on your skin, you know that you feel the stress of being late, and you know that you are aging.

Physics may call these things illusions, and religions may call them destiny, but the “truth” is likely somewhere in the gap between them. To truly know that you don’t know is not a defeat—it is the ultimate intellectual freedom. It allows you to stop being a consumer of other people’s certainties and start being an explorer of your own life.