I wish I knew then that I would not have to know it now.

[+ purplekow]

K(n)owledge is power,or so it is said. But technology has put most information literally at our fingertips. So what is knowledge worth these days. We all have accumulated knowledge on our trip through life. One could divide it as such:

 

1 Useful and necessary. We have learned to walk and to interact and innumerable bits and pieces that allow us to live a sane and safe life. Do not touch a hot stove, learned in mother's kitchen as she applied ice to a singed hand. Never say you are going to eat one potato chip or try to eat a full bag of party size M & M, one is impossible and the other will cause you to vomit up a rainbow of chocolate coating for about 45 minutes.

 

2 Not particularly useful but necessary. A lot of this information is important for us in order to maintain a complete picture of who we are. For me, this information includes the name of my first grade teacher, Mrs. Clerk, who was a guide to the value of education. It also includes knowing the usual starting line up of the NY Yankees in 1961...Bobby Richardson, Tony Kubek, Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, Bill "Moose" Skowron, "Yogi" (Lawrence) Berra, Hector Lopez, Cletus "Clete" Boyer and the pitcher. I still love baseball but now I am a Met fan. That happened in 1962 when the Mets were born and my older brother told me I had to chose one or the other, I could not root for both. He was 8 years older and I believed him and this led me to make my first real life decision which would have consequences throughout my life. But in 1961, things were easy, no choices needed to be made and a boy could just root for the home town team without having to choose.

 

3 No longer useful and not at all necessary. My aunt's phone number in 1962 until 1984 was

LA 8 6134. My locker number in high school was 162 and the combination was 36-14-27.

 

I still can recite the Gettysburg address. Not sure where that fits. Probably the second. Knowing all the words to the Gilligan's Island opening theme seems to also fit in the second, while knowing all the words to the Gilligan's Island closing theme, seems firmly ensconced in the third. I can balance my check book with ease, which seems like it would always be in the first category but with on line banking and such, it seems that it is headed for the third grouping. I must admit, none of this knowledge seems particular empowering.

 

So what is it that you know now that seemed indispensable or empowering and now seems like clutter. Which once priceless gems have become nothing more than tchotchkes collecting dust on the bottom shelves of your memory?

[gallahadesquire]

In Medicine, we speak of things that are in books; things you ought to know or look damn foolish; and things you need to know, or you'll kill people.

[Whitman]

Don't discard. Recycle. Yesterday's high school locker combination is today's cyber security password.

[AdamSmith]

So what is it that you know now that seemed indispensable or empowering and now seems like clutter. Which once priceless gems have become nothing more than tchotchkes collecting dust on the bottom shelves of your memory?

Not much. I'm lucky to have some prowess of recall (which fortunately can be deployed to slightly obscure the cognitive deficits in reasoning and ratiocinating ).

 

But when I no longer need, or enjoy, some particular mental content, it usually seems eventually just to fade out of memory. Or at any rate out of awareness. Isn't it like that with most people?

[Rudynate]

I used to have a nearly photographic memory. I no longer do and I'm glad of it. I feel a lot more peaceful without all of that junk crowding my mind.

[+ purplekow]

I have a very strong phonographic memory, so I can remember fairly precisely most of what I hear. Unfortunately, I know nothing of music writing and I am nearly tone deaf, so musically, it is torture to hear me repeat it. It is Beethovenian inverse, I can hear the music, but I cannot create or recreate it.

As it Rudynate's case, that talent has weakened with the years.

[Kenny]

technology has put most information literally at our fingertips.

Information may be at our fingertips, thanks to the internet, but the vast majority of info found there is false, made up, incorrect, untrustworthy. Critical thinking is essential to actual knowledge.

[+ purplekow]

Information may be at our fingertips, thanks to the internet, but the vast majority of info found there is false, made up, incorrect, untrustworthy. Critical thinking is essential to actual knowledge.

I agree that we need to be able to discriminate between fact and opinion in order to effectively use the information provided, but that was true of the written word and oral history as well. The sheer volume of information is staggering. I am sure the first users of the written word felt similarly.

[Kenny]

I agree that we need to be able to discriminate between fact and opinion in order to effectively use the information provided, but that was true of the written word and oral history as well. The sheer volume of information is staggering. I am sure the first users of the written word felt similarly.

The bible was the first major book printed using mass-produced movable type, and it's full of mistakes.

[+ Charlie]

I remember the birth and death dates of every pet I have had since the age of 9. It qualifies as useful knowledge, since it is the go-to source for all my computer passwords.

[AdamSmith]

I agree that we need to be able to discriminate between fact and opinion in order to effectively use the information provided, but that was true of the written word and oral history as well. The sheer volume of information is staggering. I am sure the first users of the written word felt similarly.

That seems a little bit broad-brush. To be sure, the world is awash in books that are worthless or worse. But with manuscript and then printed-book production, there was typically at least a certain amount of editorial control that is nowhere present in today's ability for anybody to publish anything on the Internet.

 

Which of course is not to criticize all the good aspects of the communication and connectedness that it enables and fosters.