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The Atlantic ·For the curious

The Myth of Perfect Knowledge

by Carlo Rovelli

Published 2026-09-08 08:30:00-04:00

How do you perfectly describe the universe when you are standing inside it?

0:00 / 9:07 · Narrator Rasalgethi

Context

In an 8 September 2026 essay for The Atlantic, a working physicist points out a strange contradiction. For centuries, western thinkers treated the human mind like a camera sitting outside of reality, capturing a perfectly objective picture of the universe. But as quantum mechanics gets better at measuring the physical world, it keeps proving that this detached camera does not exist. Losing perfect objectivity sounds like a scientific defeat, until a quieter possibility emerges. Accepting that absolute truth is a fiction might be the only way to stop treating different perspectives as enemy threats.

Show notes

An argument against the possibility of pure, objective knowledge, grounded in the limits of modern physics. Uses quantum mechanics to explain how physical properties exist only as relations between things, meaning all human observation is partial and uncertain. Frames this lack of absolute certainty not as a scientific failure, but as a practical case for humility and tolerance.

Read on The Atlantic →