# knows its hole

**A system that knows it is incomplete**

A strong enough system can prove “if I’m consistent, there is a true statement I can’t prove”. So it can know it has a blind spot, but it can never point to what is in it, and it cannot be sure it is consistent either. That is Socrates in formal dress: it knows that it doesn’t know, but not what it doesn’t know.

The idea that such a system may be another level of consciousness has exactly this shape.

Connects to:
- [checkable or not](https://mapideas.org/i/c_check)
- [the asymmetry](https://mapideas.org/i/h_asym)
- [second theorem](https://mapideas.org/i/th_second)
- [the AI version](https://mapideas.org/i/h_ai)

Source: https://mapideas.org/i/c_hole · open on the map: https://mapideas.org/#c_hole