“There is no problem the mind of man can set that the mind of man cannot solve.” ― Samuel Johnson If you recall this quote, it may be from the 1946 Sherlock Holmes movie, “Dressed to Kill” starring Basil Rathbone. It does make you think, but it also gives you hope. It gives hope we can solve anything we come across. It gives hope we can ultimately answer every question – though some may take more time than others. Unfortunately, Dr. Johnson was wrong. The problem here is that from the work of mathematicians, particularly Kurt Gödel (1906-1978), we see there are true propositions that cannot be proved, and can never be proved, true. Many have already been discovered. It seems almost paradoxical that we can prove them unprovable, but cannot not prove them. The implication is that problem can be set and then found can never be proved. Such problems are beyond unknown unknowns, they are undecidable. In other language, we can with a slight linguistic stretc
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