Knowledge Paradox

By TOBIN WAIT

Knowledge is a funny thing. It is a simple word that encompasses so much — all that we know, as individuals and as a collective.

And we know a lot.

Like hands and feet, knowledge is something we are all born with. And just like we all grow up to use our hands and feet in different ways, so do we all grow up to use our knowledge in different ways, sometimes for good (like, say, tying our shoelaces) and sometimes for bad (like, say, voting for Donald Trump).

And as humans evolve, so does the knowledge we possess. This is called progress. And progress is generally a good thing. In the 21st century, however, we seem to be moving toward a saturation of knowledge, an overabundance of what we know. And this has led to a crucial and potentially stagnating paradox: the more knowledge we gain, the less we seem to know how to properly use it.

As our collective society becomes more advanced, our individualized knowledge becomes more specialized. This is not a new concept. In 1957, business guru Peter Drucker coined the term “knowledge worker:” those workers whose main capital is knowledge, including software engineers, architects, physicians, scientists, and countless others. According to Drucker, “The most valuable asset of a 21st century institution, whether in business or non-business, will be its knowledge workers and their productivity.” This was written almost 60 years ago, but it seems especially applicable today.

Consider the massive technological advancements we have made over the last couple of decades, which have — for the most part — made our lives better. From computers to smart phones, we have used our collective knowledge to transform the way we live.

We are entrenched in a digital age, where information and knowledge are more accessible than ever; where cell phones are smaller and televisions bigger; where tweets have replaced newspapers as our primary source of news and information; where apps can help us with everything from our accounting to our golf swing to finding a date on Saturday night. Much of our knowledge seems to be funnelled toward making our lives easier and our interactions faster.

On the surface this seems like a wonderful thing. Until we consider the caveat which lurks just beneath the surface: our planet is in serious peril, millions of people around the world are starving, and Donald Trump is a presidential candidate. And the cause of these evils is rooted in our increasingly consumer-driven society, formed in no small part by not only our acquisition of new knowledge, but our inability to synthesize and use it properly. We are starting to lose sight of the fact that knowledge is a two-headed monster: what we know and what we do with what we know. And for perhaps the first time in our history, the former is seen as more valuable than the latter. We have become trapped in an epistemological quagmire.

To be effective, knowledge must serve some sort of utility. This is how civilization has progressed. When Roman chariots kept getting bogged down in the mud, the Romans used their knowledge to build stone roads. When the Persians found their food going rotten in the desert sun, they used their knowledge to build the first refrigeration system. As modern civilization spread throughout the 19th century, and getting from A to B proved to be more and more of a hassle, the Wright brothers used their knowledge to build an airplane. Throughout the ages, knowledge was used to solve some pretty legitimate problems.

What about today? What about our serious problems? Where is our knowledge to solve them? Sure, we have smart cars, and more energy efficient houses, and we recycle more. Sure, climate change is being taken more seriously. But much of that that is either too superficial or too late. As long as people are more interested in the newest IPhone than the development of a new building material that can sequester carbon, our world seems doomed. Isn’t it much easier to distract ourselves with a few hours of Pokémon Go?

Or…

In this crucial time in our planet’s history, perhaps we don’t need more knowledge; perhaps we need to do more with the knowledge that we have. Perhaps we should start using our individual and collective knowledge to stop building things that make our lives easier, and start building things that make our world better. Perhaps is time to stop sharing those cool climate change graphics on Facebook, and start acquiring the knowledge to do something about it. Perhaps it is time to use our knowledge for a real purpose.

Or perhaps it is time to wipe the slate clean. Perhaps it is time to travel back about 2500 years, and to remember the words of Socrates, a man synonymous with knowledge: “To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.”

Perhaps the only way out of the paradox is to reset…and to start again.