Socrates famously declared that "the only thing we can know is that we know nothing." Descartes created four rules in order to avoid making specious claims to knowledge:

"I thought the following four [rules] would be enough, provided that I made a firm and constant resolution not to fail even once in the observance of them. The first was never to accept anything as true if I had not evident knowledge of its being so;…

Stardate: I don't fucking know. This isn't the Captain's Log, it isn't an anybody's log, so excuse me if I don't situate myself in time by coordinating with the music of the goddamn spheres or the last time Betelgeuse fucked the Milky Way or whatever. Pardon the ever-loving cockshit out of me for marking time by carving Roman numerals -- fucking yes Roman numerals, as in Rome, as in Earth, as in where human beings are supposed to…

In a galaxy far, far away from here, there is a planet populated by a sentient race of beings not unlike our own in many of the ways that matter. The name of this planet isn’t important, nor is the name of the race. What is important to know about these beings is that long ago, they developed a very particular technology. This technology lets them scan the universe for sentient thought and beam it…