Randall R Schulz wrote:
> It
> only takes one person to advance knowledge or ability, after that, it
> is merely the transmission of information that makes that advancement
> available to others.
>
> (01)
With respect to the "transmission of information", I personally don't
think there's anything "mere" about it. The phenomenon eludes objective
observation, and it's not well understood. I'm not at all sure that "it
only takes one person to advance knowledge", either. (02)
It might be easier to think about civilization's memory loss problems if
we begin by examining what it means to transmit insights from one node
in the human network and receive them in another. (03)
Don Bitzer, the pioneer of computer-based instruction (and, not
coincidentally, the inventor of the plasma display panel, the
downloadable glyph, and the "back" button), is alleged to have said that
the true purpose of all such technologies is to reduce the cost of
allowing the receiver (the student) to exploit the perspective of the
transmitter (the teacher). (He is supposed to have laughed at the
audacity of using computer technology to achieve such a difficult,
ill-understood goal, but he was audacious anyway.) I would argue that
the same is true for all semantic technologies, not just for those whose
stated purpose is education. In other words, it's all about the
implantation of ways of seeing things -- of semantic universes -- in
human minds. As a practical matter, it's about implanting them in such a
way that they can bear fruit. (04)
In other words, the "transmission of information" is a lot like farming.
The complexity of farming, as a metaphor, might be useful for some
playful thinking about how to address civilization's memory loss issues.
Every season, we need to grow crops, even though conditions are always
changing, and new challenges can appear abruptly. The distinction
between "advancing knowledge" and "transmitting information" is very
similar to the distinction between harvesting and planting. Just two
aspects of agriculture, really. (05)
Steve Newcomb (06)
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