Humans consider themselves the pinnacle of evolution. We believe because we think and speak that we are special. After all we have deep theories of the universe. We cure diseases. We create great economic systems. We’ve flown to the moon and are planning on going to Mars soon.

Consider this: in 1992 there was a book published called the User Illusion that discussed consciousness. The story was all about the latest research into our conscious mind and how it relates to the rest of the universe.

Here is the consensus of the research. As humans we take in 11,000,000 bits of information per second through our sensory apparatus. Of that enormous amount only 14 (some people seem to be able to do 40) bits per second make it to the conscious mind.

Our ‘understanding’ of the universe is based on a relatively small sample that is roughly five orders of magnitude less than the data coming in! In other words we are clueless as to what is ‘really’ out there.

The models we build are fragmented and unable to give us a true picture of everything. A theory of everything which we physicists keep yammering on about is almost laughable. That theory has little chance of representing the 11,000,000 bits of data we can’t sense.

Tomorrow I’ll discuss how this affects our understanding of being clear.