A Universe of Knowledge
Of all the creatures on the planet, we are (so far as we know) the only ones that exist aware of time and choices, able to chose one thing over another. To learn, not simply through direct cause and effect, but from being told from one to another.
What makes us no longer the creatures that once lived in caves, but instead the society we are, is that very ability to transfer knowledge from one person to another. With that, we can learn from each other’s experiences instead of simply repeating our own. This knowledge is more than simply what we store in books and in our heads. Knowledge by its very nature is meant to be shared, passed from one to another. Concepts are shared both deliberately through direct communication, and indirectly through shared knowledge base, individual minds distilling the same concepts from the data available.
As we are part of the Divine, so are our thoughts shared by the Divine and rippled back outwards throughout humanity. Our thoughts are both our own and of the Divine, distilled and learned and shared. When we learn a new skill, a new piece of knowledge, that knowledge or skill gets strengthened throughout humanity, reinforced as worthwhile. Knowledge cannot be stopped or hoarded, because understanding ripples throughout our species, one to another as we can understand.
Knowledge and learning are holy, precious gifts from the Divine that we can return unto it, sharing knowledge with ourselves and each other. It is transmission of knowledge and the discovery of new things and new ways to understand things that helps us grow, that makes us better than we were the day before and gives us hope for the future.
We are creatures of knowledge, learning, and beauty. What we learn and share, what we create, betters the Universe and betters ourselves, radiating inwards and outwards. It is through learning and sharing knowledge that we better ourselves and the Universe.
Questions:
Why is learning important? Why isn’t it an absolute good?
What is the difference between information gathered firsthand and that obtained by other sources? Is there one?
How does knowledge pass between ourselves and the Divine?
What makes us no longer the creatures that once lived in caves, but instead the society we are, is that very ability to transfer knowledge from one person to another. With that, we can learn from each other’s experiences instead of simply repeating our own. This knowledge is more than simply what we store in books and in our heads. Knowledge by its very nature is meant to be shared, passed from one to another. Concepts are shared both deliberately through direct communication, and indirectly through shared knowledge base, individual minds distilling the same concepts from the data available.
As we are part of the Divine, so are our thoughts shared by the Divine and rippled back outwards throughout humanity. Our thoughts are both our own and of the Divine, distilled and learned and shared. When we learn a new skill, a new piece of knowledge, that knowledge or skill gets strengthened throughout humanity, reinforced as worthwhile. Knowledge cannot be stopped or hoarded, because understanding ripples throughout our species, one to another as we can understand.
Knowledge and learning are holy, precious gifts from the Divine that we can return unto it, sharing knowledge with ourselves and each other. It is transmission of knowledge and the discovery of new things and new ways to understand things that helps us grow, that makes us better than we were the day before and gives us hope for the future.
We are creatures of knowledge, learning, and beauty. What we learn and share, what we create, betters the Universe and betters ourselves, radiating inwards and outwards. It is through learning and sharing knowledge that we better ourselves and the Universe.
Questions:
Why is learning important? Why isn’t it an absolute good?
What is the difference between information gathered firsthand and that obtained by other sources? Is there one?
How does knowledge pass between ourselves and the Divine?
posted by Vieva @ 5:10 PM
3 Comments:
At 1:21 PM,
Star said…
Not so impactful (is that a word?) as some of the other essays, but this one still addresses something important, I think. You know, at first I was going to argue with you about not being able to stop knowledge--all you have to do is kill off all the people who have the knowledge in question. Then I thought about it and... Even if you do that, someone else is bound to rediscover it eventually.
Not entirely sure I agree with you, though, that no other creature on the planet has the ability to learn by being told things. Other animals have communication, don't they? They might not be learning trig or how to speak German or anything like that, but at the very least it's my understanding that they do learn from each other where things like food and water and shelter can be found. Maybe I'm wrong, though.
Study questions:
1. This one stumped me for a bit. I guess for me it's just always been "Learning GOOD!" and I haven't given it a great deal of thought... I guess I kind of figure it's good to learn because in general it's better to know things than to not know them. (Obviously that one needs a little more thought.) However, it isn't an ultimate good because, like anything, you can take it too far. All the knowledge in the world does you not one bit of good if you can't apply it. Besides that... Learning is not all there is in this world. We still have to feed and clothe ourselves, among other things. There are some jobs in which you can make money doing nothing but research, yes, but for most of us survival means spending a lot of our day applying knowledge rather than gathering it. It's not good to neglect basic needs in favor of learning.
2. There is definitely a difference. For one thing, anything you experience yourself, you will have infinitely more information about than if you had merely heard about it. For another, there's a level of credibility that comes from experiencing something yourself--your senses might decieve you, but you know that you saw what you saw (etc.), whereas another person might misrepresent or even flat-out lie about the experience.
3. I'm not sure. I haven't thought about it... I don't think that the Divine is necessarily omniscient, so it's not really that the Divine just automatically knows stuff. At the same time, I think there's a different level of perception there, so it's not that the Divine doesn't know anything unless we pass on the info. I'm not really sure how to answer this one...
At 2:23 PM,
Vieva said…
As I understand it, there are animals that can learn from being SHOWN things .. but one chimp can't talk to another about how to use a stick to get ants without having a stick and some ants as a demonstration. Which is very different from me telling you how to get ants on a stick (although why you'd want them, I don't know!) .. which I could do online with neither one of us having a stick or ants handy.
and you're right, I'm not including stuff like chemical trails .. but with stuff like the bees dancing or ant chemical trails, they can communicate *specific* information, but they can't learn anything NEW. It's instinct, not learning.
At 3:34 PM,
Star said…
OK, I guess from that angle it makes sense. :) Thanks for clarifying.
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