1. Philosophy
1.1. Metaphysics
1.2. Epistemology
1.3. Axiology
2. Mathematics
2.1. Logic
3. Natural
Science
3.1. Physics
3.2. Astronomy
3.3. Chemistry
3.4. Geoscience
3.5. Biology
4. Technology
5. Social
Science
5.1. Economics
5.2. Political
Science
5.3. Sociology
5.4. Psychology
5.5. Linguistics
5.6. History
5.7. Futurology |
Why is there something rather than nothing?
Is the world an illusion?
What exists beyond the human senses?
What happens after death? Does divine
or supernatural agency exist? Is the future already
decided?
What is the meaning of life?
What is right and wrong?
What beings should have what rights?
What
should one do?
What is truth? consciousness?
intelligence?
What are the limits of intelligence?
Of logic? Could a machine
think? Does
free will exist?
How did the universe begin? How will it end? What laws
govern it? Why are those laws as they are?
How old is the universe? How big is it? What happened before the Big Bang?
Does the universe have a center? An edge? What is the universe expanding
into?
What is life? How did life arise? What
explains its complexity?
How did mind and
language arise? How does the brain
work?
Is there life and intelligence beyond earth?
How do politics and economics work? What system is best?
How and why do men and women behave differently?
How and why have human civilizations developed differently?
Will humanity suffer cultural decline?
economic
crash? tyranny?
resource
depletion? overpopulation?
runaway
pollution? pandemic?
interplanetary
impact?
nuclear catastrophe?
nanotech plague?
Will humanity experience divine
salvation? loss of faith?
paranormal
abilities?
alien contact?
time travel? warp
travel?
machine or human
superintelligence?
immortality?
What will happen in the next: hundred
years? thousand years? million years? billion years? trillion years?
This evolving hypertext (draft 2000-12-31,
with over 1200 internal hyperlinks) is a systematic statement of what humanity
does and does not know,
and can and cannot know, about
the answers to these and hundreds
of other such questions. It summarizes what human civilization
has learned, identifying for each subdivision of human knowledge its fundamental
concepts, principles, mysteries,
and misunderstandings. It asserts a worldview
of scientific positivism
and libertarian capitalism
that it predicts will guide future
human thought and action.
Brian and his wife Melisse at Lake Tahoe |
Brian Holtz designs software at Sun Microsystems in the
San Francisco bay area, where in 1994 he wrote ToolTalk and Open Protocols
[Prentice Hall]. He holds an M.S. in AI from the U. of Michigan and a B.S.
in computer science from the U. of S. Miss. Honors College. He led
the Sun tennis team to the Silicon Valley championship in 1997, 1999, and
2000. Read more at http://holtz.org. |
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