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Ask HN: Mathematics and Organized Knowledge
For any ordered system, there can be a mathematical description of its structure and relationships.
So, can human knowledge be organized into an ordered structure that can be used to statistically measure an individual person's state of knowledge? (A map of knowledge as a standard of measurement to evaluate a person's level of understanding)
I'm aware of Knowledge Space Theory and Bayesian Knowledge Tracing. I'm asking whether human knowledge, as a whole, can be organized into a tangible hierarchical structure of nodes, sub-nodes, etc. whose relationships can be mapped in a reasonably doable way.
To me, the use of mental models, first principles thinking, scientific reductionism, and the abundance of freely available knowledge (Wikipedia) would make this a not-impossible and very-rewarding task. If we divide knowledge into science (discovered) and philosophy (made), it'd be easier to organize scientific knowledge first, then move on to making the complex organization of history, philosophy, political science, etc. (As the saying goes, the laws of planetary motion are simpler than the history of Sweden).