4 ms·

The Knowledge Age – Learn To Appreciate It

13 points by sthomps 16y ago

verisimilitude 16y ago
I do agree with the general sentiment here, that people should try to historically put their lives in context: our instant access to information is unrivaled in any history of which we are aware. However, I've written before on the important difference between information and facts (http://tumbledry.org/2009/11/20/when_information_overwhelms http://tumbledry.org/2009/11/20/when_information_overwhelms) -- when the filter for publishing and disseminating bits becomes so low, the onus transfers from the distributors to the consumers for important tasks like fact-checking, context, and bias-hunting. Furthermore, "any piece of knowledge, ever created, accessible literally at our fingertips" is still a stretch -- some of the most valuable information (untranslated, undiscovered diaries, research, historical texts) those remain offline. To tell people that "Google can access any piece of information you can ever think of in 0.15 seconds" is to narrow their understanding of sources for true knowledge and understanding. It's a good article, but one that needed a few caveats. I hope I've provided those.
- sthomps 16y ago
  You bring up some really good points. Thanks for the examples. I will check out your blog post as well.
makmanalp 16y ago
> I recently read a stat that claimed that 80% of college graduates NEVER READ A BOOK AFTER FINISHING UNIVERSITY. This sounds like utter bullshit. What about the statistics that say people read so and so many books each year? Any references?
- sthomps 16y ago
  I looked it up, and found the stat. I remembered the 80% wrong, actually 42%. The 80% were for book purchases last year. Should be changed on the post. Thanks for reading p.s. here's some more stats: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/21/AR2007082101045.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08...
jerf 16y ago
Question: If everybody has "any piece of knowledge, ever created, accessible literally at [their] fingertips", how does the author know whether people are taking advantage of it? Is the author privy to everybody's online habits? Getting "the" top 10 web sites is tricky because it depends on who you ask, but Google and Wikipedia are generally on there, among other things that could be interpreted as at least potentially "searches for knowledge". And I think that's a pretty good ratio. It's OK that Facebook is up there too; we're still human, after all.

13 points by sthomps 16y ago

I do agree with the general sentiment here, that people should try to historically put their lives in context: our instant access to information is unrivaled in any history of which we are aware. However, I've written before on the important difference between information and facts (http://tumbledry.org/2009/11/20/when_information_overwhelms http://tumbledry.org/2009/11/20/when_information_overwhelms) -- when the filter for publishing and disseminating bits becomes so low, the onus transfers from the distributors to the consumers for important tasks like fact-checking, context, and bias-hunting. Furthermore, "any piece of knowledge, ever created, accessible literally at our fingertips" is still a stretch -- some of the most valuable information (untranslated, undiscovered diaries, research, historical texts) those remain offline. To tell people that "Google can access any piece of information you can ever think of in 0.15 seconds" is to narrow their understanding of sources for true knowledge and understanding. It's a good article, but one that needed a few caveats. I hope I've provided those.

sthomps 16y ago
You bring up some really good points. Thanks for the examples. I will check out your blog post as well.

makmanalp 16y ago

> I recently read a stat that claimed that 80% of college graduates NEVER READ A BOOK AFTER FINISHING UNIVERSITY. This sounds like utter bullshit. What about the statistics that say people read so and so many books each year? Any references?

sthomps 16y ago
I looked it up, and found the stat. I remembered the 80% wrong, actually 42%. The 80% were for book purchases last year. Should be changed on the post. Thanks for reading p.s. here's some more stats: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/21/AR2007082101045.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08...

jerf 16y ago

Question: If everybody has "any piece of knowledge, ever created, accessible literally at [their] fingertips", how does the author know whether people are taking advantage of it? Is the author privy to everybody's online habits? Getting "the" top 10 web sites is tricky because it depends on who you ask, but Google and Wikipedia are generally on there, among other things that could be interpreted as at least potentially "searches for knowledge". And I think that's a pretty good ratio. It's OK that Facebook is up there too; we're still human, after all.