Evolving From Here to Eternity

Let there be light

In a cosmic sense, the processes of evolution are, literally and figuratively, magical. Sequentially, they constantly transform one entropic system into another. And each time they do this they create a new self-organizing island of ever greater complexity — from the pure energy at the beginning of the cosmos, to creation of physical matter, to biology, to self-aware minds.

Along the way, each new evolved island generated new problems which evolution itself solved with yet another magical innovation. We know, for example, other species have technologies. But the success of the evolutionary island we call humanity has been our conscious ability to intentionally and systematically store knowledge in our tools.

Indeed, humanity has, in effect, become a master at off-loading chunks of knowledge into our tools to free up cognitive space for more learning, knowledge, innovation and tool-making. Thus, as a species, we not only emulate basic evolutionary processes, we are actually turbocharging them. As a result, humanity is poised to manifest its greatest contribution to cosmic evolution.

E = mc2

We all have our peccadillos. One of mine is the importance of the data science hierarchy as a laddered way to evaluate the inherent character of content we encounter. This is important in appreciating the utility of such content. Thus, at the bottom of the hierarchy is data. Up one rung is information. This is followed by knowledge, then understanding and, if lucky, wisdom.

An easy way to think about this hierarchy is to see data as a single letter in the alphabet. Information then reflects a single word and knowledge a sentence. Understanding is thus a paragraph and wisdom is a full blown narrative. It is worth noting here that everything from data through understanding is about the past. Only wisdom faces the future.

Applying this hierarchy, the agricultural era — data — began some 12,000 years ago, the industrial era — information — 250 years ago and, with the arrival of digital technology ~ 50 years ago, the knowledge era. In addition to the curious ratio in the lifespan of these eras to one another, successively the dominate activity in each era became the driving socioeconomic force advancing civilization. Thus it seems clear we are in an era where the pace of evolution in all knowledge domains will accelerate dramatically.

Space-time continuum

But herein lies the rub. In the past, knowledge was organized using the linear construction associated with writing and printing. However, since our cognitive process, like all other evolutionary processes, organizes itself as an associative network, each of us must learn and adopt this linear construction.

Another problem in organizing knowledge has been how our cognitive processes incorporated heuristics and biases that distorted the perception of what constituted knowledge. The result was a reliance on the use of authority figures for citations. The problems with this approach are legion, from classic Greek scientific pronouncements, to Lord Kelvin with evolution, to Lysenko in biology, and, of course, most politicians. Unfortunately, most of us still rely on this approach. For example, costs aside, generally we all assume our personal doctor, lawyer or accountant is the best. Why would we settle for less? Yet it is impossible for us all to have the “best.”

Today, the quantity of Internet content is mindboggling, yet the amount continues to grow faster every day. Slowly we are realizing that more information can make it harder to make sense of the world, and thus undermines decision-making. Complicating this is the fact that past knowledge filters (e.g., academia) are of little use in this new information dense world because we cannot independently check the details of the data and information provided.

Thus, we need new knowledge filters. With associative networks of knowledge, with filters to discern reliable content, we can virtually eliminate knowledge asymmetries — the gaps between what we know individually and what is most reliable in unfamiliar domains — and thereby be more focused on what we really need to understand.

From String theory to M-theory

In this context, technologies change generationally to foster. enhance and conceal certain cognitive competences. We are now at the point where all data, information and knowledge can be mixed, re-mixed, and mashed up in both productive and counterproductive ways. Consequently, as the pace of change — technological, economic, and political — accelerates, it is more critical than ever that we become adept at distinguishing reliable knowledge from information and biased beliefs.

To become better adept at this discerning task we should consider following certain evolutionary processes more. In particular, the Internet gives us the ability to access knowledge in an associative network manner. New knowledge filters would enable us all to better prioritize what we need to understand and keep in our heads and what can and should be off-loaded to our technology.

This is important because most of us fail to appreciate that the Internet is a reputational service. That this is the key to reducing knowledge asymmetries and create a truly useful associative knowledge network. It is what enables us to connect to those who know how to the find and identify the most reliable relevant knowledge fastest.

So, the degree of trust we can place in knowledgeable others to eliminate knowledge asymmetries is increasingly important. Thus, as we go forward in communicating knowledge we want or need to understand, reputational trust is the critical prerequisite to knowledge acquisition.

From the universe to the multiverse

Questioning and validating the reliability, authenticity and relevance of knowledge is crucial prior to its use. This means crossing domain boundaries and explicitly thinking how to go from knowledge to understanding.

Evolution has a strong, inherent and visible drive we witness in the children of most species — learn fast to survive. For us to learn fast, yet better, as a civilization requires knowledge that has been pre-evaluated for reliability and is a genuine aid in understanding. Thus, the people who know how to quickly find and identify the most reliable knowledge and what can be done to make it more understandable becomes increasingly valuable. (Full disclosure, this is what my company provides.)

In this knowledge era, the central social property is trust in the reliability of the knowledge acquired. Thus the new premium commodity is a reputation for trust . In greater abundance it will change the world in new and different ways. Brace yourself.

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