4 ms·
I like this way of thinking but just to be devil’s advocate, we also constantly lose knowledge on a longer (but rather small) time scale. I think our high tech
by conductr 4y ago
I like this way of thinking but just to be devil’s advocate, we also constantly lose knowledge on a longer (but rather small) time scale. I think our high tech present, is at a bigger risk of losing >90% of what we’ve learned in the past few years. It’s like the global supply chain is great while it lasts. What happens to human knowledge if/when electricity is unavailable, hard drives are unavailable, etc. Some mad max or other post apocalypse situation is probably in the cards at some point, how do we keep the knowledge alive? If we knew how, would we? We seem to like to just ignore existential crises even when near and present. So it’s easy to be pessimistic about humanity in this regard.
- nwiswell 4y ago> how do we keep the knowledge alive? ... books? Scientific journals? Have you visited a library lately? Particularly one of the thousands of technical libraries on university campuses? They're still around. In fact it is an enduring frustration for me that I can sometimes only find quality technical information in books, particularly when it is esoteric. Retaining knowledge was a surmountable problem for past generations of scientists and innovators who had far fewer archival tools than we do today. I think we will manage.
- conductr 4y agoThat could go away too. It requires resources and specialization. Also, literacy rates, mobility, and access could be limited. It's a gradient, it could be completely lost or revert back to some priest/scribe higher class within the social system.
- nwiswell 4y agoOkay. Let me know when literacy rates stop rising, access to information starts becoming less prevalent, the number of technical degrees granted every year begins to fall, or the number of libraries begins to decrease.