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Documented cluelessness

A large issue of the information society is the fact that people

  • are not aware what they do know and
  • cannot grasp, what they do not know.

Already in ancient times Socrates, the wise of its time, putted it that way „I know that I know nothing.” Our information-hungry society is propelled by the dilemma to learn a lot and to be obliged to inform oneself constantly. This urge for knowledge leads to permanent information overload that creates nothing else than documented cluelessness.

DokumentiertesUnwissen

Our brain is not a hard disk that doubles its storage space and the access speed to stored data every 18 months. Quite the contrary. A Chinese study discovered that our brain is shrinking for the past 10,000 years from 1500 cm3 to 1350 cm3. And our everyday life experience shows that we function differently than a digital data memory. We seem never to be full, therefore

  • we subscribe more newspapers, magazines, on-line offers, than we can process. The paper piles up either in the room or in the garbage;
  • we buy books that become thicker and thicker and ever more rarely read, stuck in the shelves for years waiting for their ’consumption’;
  • we send and receive enormous amounts of emails that overflow our mail box. At the same time we wish to be on more and more mailing lists, in order not to miss anything;
  • the Germans consume on average nearly 4 hours television per day – and remember at best the transmission on the next day, but not the contents;
  • one gets lost when surfing in the Internet.

The documented cluelessness is the information that we have virtually and physically on hold to ensure that we do not miss anything. Who does not have a too large heap of documented cluelessness, as unread articles, books, unseen films, throw the first stone?

The deficit that blocks our access to already known and unknown does not result in an economic use of resources. We do not make anything out of what we already know and continue to untwist the information faucet, in order to perceive, what we think not to know. Eventually we do not feel progress.

The way out of this dead end begins with changing our convictions that drive us.

  • Accepting the own capability
    As soon as we understand that our processing capacity is as good or as bad, as for all others, we can better use the existing resources.
  • We know almost nothing about everything
    There is nobody, who has less cluelessness than we do. Accepting this lack of knowledge, not being afraid of posing questions and making curiosity a virtue reduces the pressure.
  • Preventing that news blow out quickly
    Soaking up news passively leads to fast forgetting. Immediate, active application of new knowledge in discussions and/or the written summary of new insights lead to the fact that it can be better recalled.
  • Using the senses for oneself
    Information is at best remembered, if it enters on the one hand via several sensory channels and on the other hand our preferred sense channel is supplied. Who knows, with which sense channel he/she learns best – visually, auditory, kinesthetically?

Bottom line: The fatal is the missing awareness of the existing knowledge and the invisibility of the unknown. This deficiency cannot be overcome with efforts but by coming loose the documented knowledge and by using the existing always more actively. It functions well, if we change our convictions, as mentioned above, so that the need for more and more documented cluelessness dissolves.

The knife – between tool and weapon

The first hand axes that were created by our ancestors two and a half million years ago were the Swiss Army Knife of the Stone Age. The extremely sharp edges for cutting or scraping and the blunt side for hammering extended the human abilities in daily life. Even without appropriate evidence, one can assume that the knife was in those days on the one side a useful tool and on the other side a deadly weapon. Millions of people were killed in the course of history with knifes. Thus, the classification of a knife is torn back and forth between tool and weapon.

Messer

Nearly all inventions have a negative flipside. On the one hand there is a practical benefit. But on the other hand they are used for unwanted activities with terrible consequences.

The tool is an aid that extends the human physical and mental abilities. Usually we have a larger toolset in our household – from kitchenware, to a toolbox with hammer and screwdriver, to our computers and television sets. We use these instruments, without being aware, how it would be, if they were not at hand – for cutting bread, for repairing or for learning.

Weapons are objects, with which organisms and things are to be damaged, up to death and/or the total destruction. The use is actually limited to certain specialists – hunters, policemen, soldiers. Thus, only a few people have access to weapons, wouldn’t be there tools that can be also used to do these destructive tasks.

Due to the unacceptable side effects that create some tools, inventors always have to ask themselves, whether they become guilty by developing these tools. Which questions could help them?

  • Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?
  • Are there more benefits than damages?
  • Do the opportunities that emerge count more than the dangers that develop?

For most of the tools the positive characteristics will outweigh the negative ones. The knife has by far more advantages in the household as disadvantages as a killing instrument. The benefit of cutting is bigger than the damage of killing. The possibilities of cutting materials or surgical procedures are surely more important than the damage that results from criminal or governmental killing.

Bottom line: A tool is always a latent weapon. Not for nothing there is a reason to speak of instruments of war or killing. Are there tools that do not contain these negative effects of a weapon? Probably not. With a common artefact like a knife with all its features this dilemma becomes visible.