Destroyed—by a KNOWLEDGE Explosion?

Many have heard about the so-called “doubling accumulation” of human knowledge. Some think this rapid acceleration will catapult human civilization beyond the stratosphere, while others are concerned that mankind’s growing capabilities will result in uncontrollable consequences—including global catastrophe. Where is human knowledge headed?

Some speculate that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will revolutionize human existence in a profound transformation, eventually breaking the boundaries of time, space, and biological existence. Some encourage establishing a single repository of all human knowledge and information, accessible to everyone, to further human progress.

Long ago, the Library of Alexandria was the largest repository of human knowledge in ancient Egypt—state-of-the-art, for its time at least. Scholars debate how many papyri scrolls the library held, possibly up to 400,000 or more. By 1440 AD, the printing press was invented, allowing for greater dissemination of information than ever before. In 1923, UNESCO estimated there were roughly 158,464,880 unique books in the world, with 2.2 million books published every year. As Ecclesiastes 12:12 predicted, “of making many books there is no end….” And the Apostle John, speaking of the many unrecorded things Jesus Christ did, said, “[I]f they would all be written, I suppose that even the world itself wouldn’t have room for the books that would be written” (John 21:25).

God told the prophet Daniel that “knowledge will be increased” at the time of the end (Daniel 12:4). It appears this prediction was correct. And human knowledge today is growing exponentially. As illustrated by the Buckminster Fuller Knowledge Doubling Curve, the accumulation of human knowledge or information in the 20^th century doubled in 50 years, then in 20 years and then in only ten years. Now, in 2025, the pace of doubling has advanced to mere hours.

The invention of modern communications and computer science played a central role in this acceleration. The total volume of data in the world is estimated to rise to 181 zettabytes by the end of 2025. A zettabyte is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes. It would take 250 billion DVDs to hold 1 zettabyte of data. Earlier this year, the speed of data transmission climbed from kilobytes per second to megabytes to gigabytes to 402 terabytes per second. How much more data will be generated using Artificial Intelligence is anyone’s guess.

Of course, data is not the same as knowledge, which includes awareness and understanding of information. Yet, much of man’s knowledge is said to have a “half-life”—a way of describing the knowledge in many given fields becoming outdated. Some things thought true today need revision or replacement tomorrow. But with all of man’s accumulated knowledge, there appears to be very little knowledge of the Creator God (Hosea 4:1). Is this partly because humans “hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord” (Proverbs 1:29) and the carnal mind is enmity against God (Romans 8:7)?

God is a God of knowledge (1 Samuel 2:3) and is perfect in knowledge (Job 37:16). Our Father knows what we need (Matthew 6:8, 32), He knows the number of hairs on our head (Matthew 10:30) and knows the number of and names of all the stars (Psalm 147:4).

A time is coming when “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9). That alone would destroy man’s gross ignorance of God and the way to peace, happiness, and a fulfilled life. Mankind would also understand how much he needs God. But until Christ returns to make that happen, those who now desire to follow Jesus Christ and learn of His ways are encouraged to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).

Tomorrow’s World has magazines, booklets, and videos to make plain the Bible’s answers to the most important questions—especially what God reveals about mankind’s future. If you found this article interesting, you might also appreciate the telecast “The Millennial Rest for Humanity—And You.”