--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: We aspire to omniscience, but should we…" description: "\"“We aspire to omniscience, but should we ever actually become omniscient what would be the point in continuing to exist? The game would be over and don..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/540/thomas-ligotti-2073_bored-to-death_we-aspire-to-omniscience-but-should-we-e_3080463.png" --- # We aspire to omniscience, but should we ever actually… ![“We aspire to omniscience, but should we ever actually become omniscient what would be the point in continuing to exist? The game would be over and done. No mystery would be left to lend our lives a mystique, and without this mystique everything we do would be reduced to numbers we could look up in…” quote by Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/540/thomas-ligotti-2073_bored-to-death_we-aspire-to-omniscience-but-should-we-e_3080463.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/540/thomas-ligotti-2073_bored-to-death_we-aspire-to-omniscience-but-should-we-e_3080463.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/540/thomas-ligotti-2073_bored-to-death_we-aspire-to-omniscience-but-should-we-e_3080463.png) > ““We aspire to omniscience, but should we ever actually become omniscient what would be the point in continuing to exist? The game would be over and done. No mystery would be left to lend our lives a mystique, and without this mystique everything we do would be reduced to numbers we could look up in a computer file and have no need to puzzle over. We would be victorious . . . and bored to death. Everything having to do with humanity and nonhumanity would hit a wall and come to a stop. We seem to have set out on an expedition whose success would be our ruin. The only way out, perhaps, would be to fashion creatures less knowing than ourselves and exist through them. What humiliation, what pathos that we should ever end up as gods. Is there nothing that can bring us into reconciliation with the cancer of existence?”” [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. He suggests that achieving total knowledge would erase mystery, making existence meaningless and leading to existential boredom; humanity must retain unknown to stay alive. **In simple terms:** Complete knowledge kills wonder. Key Takeaway Embrace mystery, avoid total certainty. Themes existential philosophy knowledge humanity Mood cautious melancholic Type philosophical critical When to use this quote - scientific research - AI development - spiritual practice - creative arts Key Concepts epistemology nihilism meaninglessness Questions to Reflect On - Can we live without mystery? - What role does uncertainty play in meaning? A Different Perspective Total certainty may cause stagnation and loss of purpose. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Aspire Omniscience](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/aspire-omniscience-5251969/) [Bored to death](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bored-to-death/) [Existence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existence/) [Omniscience](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/omniscience/) [Omniscience Actually](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/omniscience-actually-5251968/) [Omniscient](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/omniscient/) ## Related quotes > [What makes us omniscient? Have we a record of omniscience? We are the strongest nation in the world today. I do not believe we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-mcnamara/what-makes-us-omniscient-have-we-a-record-of-omniscience-we-are-the/) [Robert McNamara](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-mcnamara/) > [“Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life. Redeem your mind from the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/live-and-act-within-the-limit-of-your-knowledge-and-keep-expanding-it-2/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [“It's easy to be omniscient when you've done it all before.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/audrey-niffenegger/it-s-easy-to-be-omniscient-when-you-ve-done-it-all-before/) [Audrey Niffenegger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/audrey-niffenegger/) > [Can omniscient God, who Knows the future, find The omnipotence to Change His future mind?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/can-omniscient-god-who-knows-the-future-find-the-omnipotence-to/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“To say that God is omniscient is to say that He possesses perfect knowledge and therefore has no need to learn. But it is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/a-w-tozer/to-say-that-god-is-omniscient-is-to-say-that-he-possesses-perfect/) [A.W. Tozer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/a-w-tozer/) > [It is possible to move through the drama of our lives without believing so earnestly in the character that we play. That we take…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pema-ch-dr-n/it-is-possible-to-move-through-the-drama-of-our-lives-without-2/) [Pema Chodron](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pema-ch-dr-n/) > [It is possible to move through the drama of our lives without believing so earnestly in the character that we play.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pema-ch-dr-n/it-is-possible-to-move-through-the-drama-of-our-lives-without/) [Pema Chodron](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pema-ch-dr-n/) > [I’m bored to death. Perhaps I should pillage one of my neighbors for my own amusement. It seems to work for Drowden.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kristin-cashore/i-m-bored-to-death-perhaps-i-should-pillage-one-of-my-neighbors-for/) [Kristin Cashore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kristin-cashore/) > [Broadly speaking, human beings may be divided into three classes: those who are billed to death, those who are worried to death, and those…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/winston-churchill/broadly-speaking-human-beings-may-be-divided-into-three-classes-those/) [Winston Churchill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/winston-churchill/) > [I wanted to be bored to death, as good a way to go as any.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-de-vries/i-wanted-to-be-bored-to-death-as-good-a-way-to-go-as-any/) [Peter De Vries](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-de-vries/) > [If I die prematurely at any rate I shall be saved from being bored to death by my own success.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-butler/if-i-die-prematurely-at-any-rate-i-shall-be-saved-from-being-bored-to/) [Samuel Butler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samuel-butler/) > [“Smoking can kill you, he said, and I replied: sounds better than being bored to death”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chloe-thurlow/smoking-can-kill-you-he-said-and-i-replied-sounds-better-than-being/) [Chloe Thurlow](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chloe-thurlow/) > [“If you hate difference, you'll be bored to death.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/toba-beta/if-you-hate-difference-you-ll-be-bored-to-death/) [Toba Beta](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/toba-beta/) > [If I die prematurely I shall be saved from being bored to death at my own success.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-butler/if-i-die-prematurely-i-shall-be-saved-from-being-bored-to-death-at-my/) [Samuel Butler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samuel-butler/) > [“The Path Of Least Resistance Is Littered With The Corpses Of The Bored To Death”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-cavanagh/the-path-of-least-resistance-is-littered-with-the-corpses-of-the/) [Dean Cavanagh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-cavanagh/) ## More by Thomas Ligotti > [“Subsequently there ensues an epoch of complex, proliferating intrigues and conspiracies among the ranks of double agents, whose agendas become so densely intertwined that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/subsequently-there-ensues-an-epoch-of-complex-proliferating-intrigues/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“The point that in the absence of birth nobody exists who can be deprived of happiness is terribly conspicuous. For optimists, this fact plays…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-point-that-in-the-absence-of-birth-nobody-exists-who-can-be/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“The worst fear of the race yes, the world suddenly transformed into a senseless nightmare, horrible dissolution of things. Nothing compares, even oblivion is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-worst-fear-of-the-race-yes-the-world-suddenly-transformed-into-a/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“In supernatural horror stories, however, magical thinking is a completely different matter. Those characters contending with what seems to be the work of magic…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/in-supernatural-horror-stories-however-magical-thinking-is-a/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“When you are alone in the wilderness, opinions or beliefs of any kind are dropped as the absurd accoutrements they are. But after being…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/when-you-are-alone-in-the-wilderness-opinions-or-beliefs-of-any-kind/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“There seems to be an inborn drive in all human beings not to live in a steady emotional state, which would suggest that such…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/there-seems-to-be-an-inborn-drive-in-all-human-beings-not-to-live-in/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [Nature proceeds by blunders; that is its way. It is also ours. So if we have blundered by regarding consciousness as a blunder, why…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/nature-proceeds-by-blunders-that-is-its-way-it-is-also-ours-so-if-we/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [We live in a permanent state of bad faith, a mutual representation of ourselves to one another for the sake of remaining sane and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/we-live-in-a-permanent-state-of-bad-faith-a-mutual-representation-of/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“The darkness of the grotesque is an immortal enigma: in all legends of the dead, in all the tales of creatures of the night,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-darkness-of-the-grotesque-is-an-immortal-enigma-in-all-legends-of/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“If truth is what you seek, then the examined life will only take you on a long ride to the limits of solitude and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/if-truth-is-what-you-seek-then-the-examined-life-will-only-take-you/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“The dismembered limbs of dolls and puppets are strewn about everywhere. Posters, signs, billboards, and leaflets of various sorts are scattered around like playing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-dismembered-limbs-of-dolls-and-puppets-are-strewn-about/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“As I drifted along with my bodiless invisibility, I felt myself more and more becoming an empty, floating shape, seeing without being seen and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/as-i-drifted-along-with-my-bodiless-invisibility-i-felt-myself-more/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“The lessons in measurement of cloacal forces. Time as a flow of sewage. The excrement of space, scatology of creation. The voiding of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-lessons-in-measurement-of-cloacal-forces-time-as-a-flow-of-sewage/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [And the worst possible thing we could know — worse than knowing of our descent from a mass of microorganisms — is that we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/and-the-worst-possible-thing-we-could-know-worse-than-knowing-of-our/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“Only catatonics and coma patients can persevere in a dignified withdrawal from life’s rattle and hum. Without a “yes” in our hearts, nothing would…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/only-catatonics-and-coma-patients-can-persevere-in-a-dignified/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) [Explore all 187 Thomas Ligotti quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) ## More Bored to death quotes > [“The Path Of Least Resistance Is Littered With The Corpses Of The Bored To Death”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-cavanagh/the-path-of-least-resistance-is-littered-with-the-corpses-of-the/) [Dean Cavanagh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-cavanagh/) > [If I die prematurely I shall be saved from being bored to death at my own success.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-butler/if-i-die-prematurely-i-shall-be-saved-from-being-bored-to-death-at-my/) [Samuel Butler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samuel-butler/) > [“If you hate difference, you'll be bored to death.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/toba-beta/if-you-hate-difference-you-ll-be-bored-to-death/) [Toba Beta](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/toba-beta/) > [“Smoking can kill you, he said, and I replied: sounds better than being bored to death”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chloe-thurlow/smoking-can-kill-you-he-said-and-i-replied-sounds-better-than-being/) [Chloe Thurlow](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chloe-thurlow/) > [If I die prematurely at any rate I shall be saved from being bored to death by my own success.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-butler/if-i-die-prematurely-at-any-rate-i-shall-be-saved-from-being-bored-to/) [Samuel Butler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samuel-butler/) > [I wanted to be bored to death, as good a way to go as any.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-de-vries/i-wanted-to-be-bored-to-death-as-good-a-way-to-go-as-any/) [Peter De Vries](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-de-vries/) > [Broadly speaking, human beings may be divided into three classes: those who are billed to death, those who are worried to death, and those…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/winston-churchill/broadly-speaking-human-beings-may-be-divided-into-three-classes-those/) [Winston Churchill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/winston-churchill/) > [I’m bored to death. Perhaps I should pillage one of my neighbors for my own amusement. It seems to work for Drowden.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kristin-cashore/i-m-bored-to-death-perhaps-i-should-pillage-one-of-my-neighbors-for/) [Kristin Cashore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kristin-cashore/) > [It is possible to move through the drama of our lives without believing so earnestly in the character that we play.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pema-ch-dr-n/it-is-possible-to-move-through-the-drama-of-our-lives-without/) [Pema Chodron](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pema-ch-dr-n/) > [It is possible to move through the drama of our lives without believing so earnestly in the character that we play. That we take…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pema-ch-dr-n/it-is-possible-to-move-through-the-drama-of-our-lives-without-2/) [Pema Chodron](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pema-ch-dr-n/) > [I wouldn't feel satisfied being on set every day doing a romantic comedy - I'd be bored to death.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joaquin-phoenix/i-wouldn-t-feel-satisfied-being-on-set-every-day-doing-a-romantic/) [Joaquin Phoenix](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joaquin-phoenix/) > [ I did Bored To Death with Jason \[Schwartzman\] and Zach Galifianakis and those guys. I mean, how lucky can you be that you get… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-masur/i-did-bored-to-death-with-jason-schwartzman-and-zach-galifianakis-and/) [Richard Masur](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-masur/) > [There's a story everywhere. Being bored to death someplace is basically a funny proposition. What you have to watch out for is you don't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tim-cahill/there-s-a-story-everywhere-being-bored-to-death-someplace-is/) [Tim Cahill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tim-cahill/) > [To be bored to death is a form of suicide.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frederick-buechner/to-be-bored-to-death-is-a-form-of-suicide/) [Frederick Buechner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frederick-buechner/) > [I was bored to death and thinking more about the minibar and the after-show party than the performance.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/volker-bertelmann/i-was-bored-to-death-and-thinking-more-about-the-minibar-and-the/) [Volker Bertelmann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/volker-bertelmann/) [Browse all 41 Bored to death quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bored-to-death/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“We aspire to omniscience, but should we ever actually become omniscient what would be the point in continuing to exist? 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