# Certainty and Knowledge

**URL:** https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/certainty-and-knowledge/2045
**Category:** Elliot Temple
**Tags:** bot, curiosity-blog
**Created:** [April 27, 2025, 4:53pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/certainty-and-knowledge/2045 "2025-04-27T16:53:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 3

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### Author: ![ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/activemind/32/5560_2.png) [@ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/ActiveMind)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2025, 6:35pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/certainty-and-knowledge/2045/3 "2025-04-27T18:35:49Z")

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> [@Elliot](#):
>
> A grain of sand or drop of water contains vast amounts of information because it contains vast numbers of atoms that could be measured in multiple different ways. Most information isn’t knowledge.

But something like the radius of the moon is knowledge because it was useful in mathematical calculations that we needed to do to land on the moon.

When I wrote about useless information here:

> [@Actually Thinking YouTube Videos](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/actually-thinking-youtube-videos/2035/52):
>
> > [@Actually Thinking YouTube Videos](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/actually-thinking-youtube-videos/2035/51):
> >
> > What is information when it is not useful then?
> 
> An example: how many grains of sand there are in a beach.

I wondered whether something like the radius of the moon was knowledge. The reason was that it’s a particular fact, like how many grains of sand there are on a beach, and not a general concept. I mostly associate knowledge with abstract concepts, but I don’t actually think that’s all it is.

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