I cannot know, and consequently do not need to know, everything. But I do know the One who does. “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3). Satisfaction in that truth tames the soul, taking away the vain thirsts to know so many other things. And it gives place to a deeper, eternal longing for a knowledge so vast that we have to pray for the Spirit’s help like Paul did, so that we “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:14-19).

In 1982 Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller (What a name!) rolled out his “knowledge-doubling curve.” He proposed that the total knowledge available to mankind at any given time in history could be measured in units with the rate of increase determined. He estimated that the total amount of knowledge available at the time of Christ took 1500 years to double in scope. But in 250 years, in 1750, it doubled again, and then in just 150 years with further human innovation and advancement in science, the sum of human knowledge was eight times what it was in 0 A.D. (or in other words 8 “BC knowledge units”). With the advent of media and the internet in the 20th century, the amount of knowledge available to mankind accelerated further. According to Fuller’s curve, in 1985 64 “BC knowledge units” were available.

A way to see this concept in how long it takes the amount of knowledge to double is by graphing it. As the graph below shows, in 1900 the rate for information to double was every century; at the end of World War II it was doubling every 25 years: by 1982 the doubling rate was every year approximately, and currently it’s on a pace to double every half day!

Here’s yet another way to consider how this information is coming at us. The following statistics are worldwide ones. Google reports that they handle 3.8 million searches every minute. 8 trillion texts are sent every day. 350 million photos are placed on Facebook every day and 995 photos are shared on Instagram every second. 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute and over one billion hours of videos are watched every day.

All of this information tsunami washing over us is impacting us. As Nicholas Carr says in The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains:

What the Net does is shift the emphasis of our intelligence, away from what might be called a meditative or contemplative intelligence and more toward what might be called a utilitarian intelligence. The price of zipping among lots of bits of information is a loss of depth in our thinking.

How evident that is in public discourse these days. No one listens to others, thinks deeply, and responds graciously despite a difference of opinion anymore. Instead, people immediately vilify someone with whom they disagree.

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