Technology inherently replaces the obsolete to a varying degree. One should view different knowledge mediums pseudo technology in of themselves. Each medium can be thought of as an invention or revolution in the way humans think. While no knowledge medium is ever completely eradicated, history shows that each newly invented medium replaces the previous medium as the dominate way to communicate knowledge.
Folk knowledge became replaced by oral knowledge. Oral knowledge came to be more structured, organized and formal. This caused it to overcome strictly folk knowledge as it incorporated it into the medium. One can orally transfer folk knowledge, but one can also transfer knowledge orally without it being folk knowledge. The latter became a more common practice with the advent of more formal means of transferring information. For example, Plato, Socrates and Aristotle organized a system in which they orally passed on formal knowledge to their students through organized debates and questioning forums. Other practices like Mayan performances in a play-like setting provided a formal setting where citizens could come and hear a systematic and organized approach to documenting and disseminating historical, political or any other field of study. These “epic performance” events were also especially popular in the Greek culture.
Then came written knowledge. One of the biggest similarities blogging group number six was able to synthesize from its study of the transition from oral to written knowledge was the fact that cultures and civilizations that developed and utilized written knowledge advanced, while cultures that did not were eventually lost. Michael Miles blogged about the Hopi Indian tribe. One thing that he observed was that because the Hopi’s believed that to write down their history and religion would be to blaspheme it, there culture remained stagnant. Mike eventually had to stop researching them as their history did not advance with the rest of the world to include the later knowledge mediums. Not much is known about many civilizations for the sole reason that they did not record their history or transfer knowledge through the written medium. It is clear that the culture must adapt and adopt to written knowledge to advance.
The advantages to the transition to the print medium from the written medium are perhaps the most obvious. As Misa explored, Gutenberg’s inventions, especially with the ink used to print, that advanced the printing process and propelled it to be the dominant medium of communicating knowledge. The scribes slow and tedious process of writing books could not keep up with the fast paced new printing method to disseminate knowledge. The printing press opened up the world exponentially more and more fields of knowledge. No longer was the Bible and religious texts virtually the only things communicated through books and documents. The world saw an explosion of secular knowledge. Moreover, whether religious or secular, knowledge was made more widely available. Now the common farmer could read the Bible and learn about the human body which was previously reserved to the upper echelon of society. For these reasons the printed medium eclipsed the written format as the dominant method of communicating knowledge.
As discussed in the knowledge salon, today there is another revolution of knowledge mediums occurring. Much like the replacement of the less efficient written knowledge by the printed medium, the digital medium is rapidly over coming the printed medium as the dominant way to access information. The reasons are essentially the same, the digital medium is much more efficient. It is faster, offers more features and can be disseminated much quicker and to a broader audience as compared to the printed medium. The current generation has almost completely shifted away from the printed medium to the digital medium. Word processors are used to take notes, do homework and write papers. The internet and not books is used to research and access information. Pictures and life information is shared through social networks. Even commerce is shifting to the digital medium.
No matter the case, history proves that to advance in the world, a culture must adopt the latest knowledge medium invention. Some people resist change seeing the replacement as negative, but as discussed in the the written and printed knowledge salon groups, it is not negative, but rather efficient.
It is my pleasure to write here and make a contribution to this posting, and to say thank you to all of you who made this interesting posting. So many of us would agree that technology is making our lives easier but making the digital knowledge as in its current appearance open to public either, which has its downsides but also its upsides. The knowledge communicated today seems prevailing over all other previous or contemporaneous -- look at social networking participation among people which is highly encouraged, or the use of electronic devices to read holy scriptures in digital forms by members of Church -- Some might now think the latter is yet not as much accessible as possible to the broad public. The reasons vary, I don't want to detail them here it would take long. The digital knowledge medium might be advantageous but requires caution to use it effectively, especially in terms of accessibility of information to the broader public. One might ponder about the next stage of possible medium change. In this respect, I presume that it will probably be replaced by the knowledge economy, which is not so far in the future, and be used by the members of society to benefit in economic terms, in particular highly economically developed countries will invest into knowledge engineering and managment that will add value to the societies as a whole. Recently, one of my former professors here at RAIUL gave a specific lecture on a similar topic, "The Rise of Knowledge Economies". It was interesting for me to participate in this formal presentation taking advantage of the digital knowledge exchange medium.
ReplyDeleteI might add some empirically proven notes to my comment already posted above in representing the theorem of next possible knowledge mediums arising. The following content is parly based on the work by Mark Stefik, (1986).
DeleteAfter a quick review of his paper, Marke explains how schizophrenic disorders interactive conversation and dichotomy are terminologies also by way of expression metaphors that are related to chromosomal mechanisms of inheritance of human kind that need to be tackled first in order to create more efficient, brand-new knowledge mediums for us to generate, distribute, apply and counsel communication devices and foster implementation of those analogies and memes to next generations. For example, first consider the gene pool is biotechnically involved in the selection process of gene creation, besides considering ecology processes in scientific communication all of which will be resulting in genetic drifts due mainly to isolation. The larger population of gene pools is more stable in trasferring genes across pools than smaller population so the trigger of current knowlegde mediums arising in modern time to be progressed and scientifically used is apparently rooted in isolation, drifting, and displacement of those gene pools, cross-disciplinary. The environmental selection progress, in other words the natural selection also being caused through evolutionary neuroscience and biology is the main cause of those chromosomal features are being generated and inherited and seen as a potential developing tool for new medium channels found and implemented. In addition, business creates new business by means of economy of scale and mass production, once interacted with the legal system it might be such a emerging phenomenon of new knowledge mediums. Another cause of searching for ways leads to new distribution channels of knowledge might date back to scientists as being experts and innovators in peer-reviewing to scientifically and empirically explain found pieces of evidence in their most teaching way. Today, we often observe in the media world that knowledge mediums are largely used as being low-level facts transmitter instead of high-level memes. Standardization and Interoperability may interact with those terminologies and their application and help to overcome artificial intelligence of additive memes being spread. More sophisticated approach therefore to gaining memes that are more practicable and useful in the sense that people are meme carriers and so experts would help develop high-level knowledge mediums in a more strategic way, underlying ways of improving developments between basic genetic elements and coevolution in new channels to use. Mutually cooerpative interaction among population would avoid discrepancies being placed in the wrong sense and help expand knowledge through sharing and discovering differences in various aspects of communication by exploring personal boundaries.