We are terrified of the unknown. We cannot comprehend the infinite possibilities of the unknown. And so we lie to ourselves. We pretend that the infinite does not exist. We simplify. We pull a curtain over the infinite in our minds. We act as if the world is known to us—that we have it in our grasp.
Our minds crave certainty. From an evolutionary standpoint, high uncertainty leads to high likelihood of death. The hunter-gatherer who is safe in the confines of her cave with a fire to keep predators away sleeps better than another hunter-gatherer who is out in the open, cold and alone. The one in the cave has fewer threats to consider than the one in the open. The one in the cave is more likely to survive. And our minds are the servants of our survival. Anything that threatens our survival will cause us anxiety. Anxiety is our mind’s survival tool.
Our minds crave permanence. A thing that persists is more known than a thing that does not persist. A thing that vanishes quickly transfers from the domain of the known to the domain of the unknown. Impermanence is our mind’s worst enemy. Impermanence threatens to shatter our safety. And yet impermanence is one of the few knowns that this world holds. Nothing lasts forever.
As homo sapiens have evolved from living in a physical jungle to a digital jungle, our relationship with the unknown has become more intimate. The physical world has far fewer variables to consider than the digital world. Physical space is limited to three dimensions that we can perceive. We are familiar with how to create safety in a physical space. This is a known process that has been optimized through tens of thousands of years.
The digital jungle has entered the scene only within the last century—a blip in the radar of our evolutionary history. The digital jungle is a dangerous place. Yes, it is full of digital gold. Yes, it promises utopian outcomes for mankind. Yes, it sells the holy grail of what mankind has searched for throughout its history. The digital jungle offers an answer to every kind of question and problem we can imagine.
And yet the digital jungle is littered with traps and threats. The amount of data for our minds to consider and filter through is near infinite. We are confronted with our finitude. We are forced to stare into the blinding sun of the unknown. We seek to make sense out of the endless streams of data flowing through our devices into our brains. We seek to convert the unknown into the known.
But the digital jungle is constantly evolving. A piece of information that is a valuable discovery today may be deadly to hold onto a month later. What was good becomes bad. What was bad becomes good. Our desire to convert the unknown, swirling, impermanent, evolving, and ever-changing digital jungle into a known, fixed, permanent, unchanging concrete city in our minds is a losing battle.
Instead of trying to grasp the infinite, perhaps it is time that we learned to accept the infinite. Instead of molding the world into our minds, perhaps it is time that we mold our minds to the world. Instead of avoiding the unknown, perhaps it is time to embrace the unknown.
