Knowledge Duplication Curve and You

Welcome to the information age.

“…knowledge doubles every ten years.” Eric Johnson, president of the US Chamber of Commerce -in the mid-twentieth century- as the constancy of change pointed out.

That was before the internet. With the advent of the Web, knowledge doubled approximately every 18 months in 2004, according to the American Society for Training and Documentation (ASTD).

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IBM predicts that in the next few years, information will double every 11 hours

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“As shown in patents and academic publications, knowledge doubles at different rates for different sectors, from 2 years for nanotechnology to 21 years for other sectors.” (news fan)

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Ray Kurzweil predicts that decades from now, he predicts, you will be billions of times more intelligent than you are today, able to read minds, assume different forms, and reshape your physical environment at will. So will everyone. Mere quintessences of dust, today’s human beings will be as antiquated as Homo Erectus.

All of this, Kurzweil believes, will occur through something called The Singularity. Popularized more than a decade ago by mathematician, computer scientist, and science fiction novelist Vernor Vinge, who borrowed the term from mathematics and astrophysics, refers to the point in the future at which technological change, fueled by the explosive growth of artificial intelligence, will accelerate beyond the point of current human comprehension.

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What happens when the rate accelerates to double each month? So knowledge will increase 4096 times every year. (Fairfield Life)

So, in short, I guess: you get to choose how much knowledge we have or will have or could have, because… no one seems to know… about the knowledge… exactly.

Exactly.

Honest is mostly guessing. Well-paid riddles and PhD riddles, but riddles. Do you know how many species of animals are in the worlds? We do not know

Why do we sleep? – We are not sure
Where does life come from? – We are not sure
Why is there something rather than nothing? Is that why we and the universe are here, rather than not here? – We do not know.
How did language evolve? – We do not know.

There is more we don’t know than we do know. And what we “know”, what is called “information”, is mainly naming things. They were always here, it is only now that we have “discovered” them and have given them a name. And every time we name something, it is called knowledge. It’s not, it’s just a name.

Anyway. The question is. Chill out. The information is to use, not to memorize.

The stats are what’s already here but rearranged. The percentage of RBIs on or off steroids by (insert players name here)… Well, we may or may not know that name, we may or may not know, or care, he uses steroids, and the number of RBIs expressed in an XY curve or bell curve does not change the fact that you or I have cancer, flu symptoms, scraped knees, pregnancy, or job prospects. They are just things put together from other things and then called ‘new’ things.

Science is more or less the same, nothing is ‘discovered’. You or I may not have known about protons before science ‘discovered’ them, but they were there, and scrambled eggs are still scrambled eggs with or without the factor of protons.

OK Science is good for technology, good for allowing us more… comfort.

All I’m saying is…

… calm down, it’s just things – and above all, for you and me, not so important ‘things’. How about we learn what we don’t need to know?

Small examples:

Homelessness – a cure. It’s too overwhelming, isn’t it? It is said that there are more than a quarter of a million homeless people in New York City on any given day – 250,000 people. How much would it cost to fix that? – No one has that much money to spare. Aim –

There are apparently only about 2,500 chronically homeless people. That is, no matter what happens, they will be left homeless, due to medical or mental problems. NYC is spending more than $62 million a year on homelessness. That’s almost $25,000 a year, every year. He wants to fix homelessness in New York City: Buy cheap housing, put nurses on standby, and access hospital care for those 2,500. It costs less than $62 million over 10 years, 20 years. But that’s not how we think, we want statistics and bell curves, and we don’t want to give to those who are down when the single mom gets nothing: we are principled. But then our principles and information get in the way. of real knowledge, so we fail.

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The famous beating of Rodney King and LAPD Millions were spent on LAPD, studies, reports and commissions. Money was invested in better recruiting techniques and better training programs and in charts, diagrams and statistics. But the Commission report on the LAPD at the time found that there were 44 – Forty four hard core BAD cops who basically caused the whole problem. There were other cops who weren’t perfect, but there were 44 tough crazy guys. Shoot the 44. You’re done. LAPD is resurrected. But we have so much ‘information’ how can it be so simple?

Actually-

It’s the old story: the 80/20 rule. 20% of any number produces 80% of the problem, benefit, job or situation. 10% are key movers. 1-5% are the core of the problem or solution.

But that’s not a bell curve, that’s not… fair. And we believe in fairness and statistical methods and more knowledge gathering until we can solve the problem.

That’s our problem, there are always a few causing a lot and it’s always simpler than we think. And in an information-crazed world (the western world) where grants and money are tied to ‘discovering’ things. Simple, let’s face it, it’s not good.

But listen, it’s always simpler than we think.

Remember that about business, your business on the internet. It doesn’t matter how many programs you buy, how many seminars you attend, how much “knowledge” you try to cram into your brain. Less than 20% of anything is worth it. So calm down, get back up. Pick a business or market niche that you like or like, and learn about it.

Not everything about everything, just that key 2-10% that gets everything moving, and then if you have a link, the rest of the 20%, but honestly you don’t need that much ‘information’.

Learn what you don’t need to know.

Most of ‘knowledge’ is a luxury. It’s because we can produce the numbers, not because they have a true value. It is the way of a rich society. Always.

(yes, test and trace, use all analytics, but that’s not ‘knowledge’, they’re tools, put them back when you’re done with them.)

Find out all the little you need to know, and know that. Information is a tool: use it when needed. And save it. And in ten years it will still be less than 20% of the total, and in 100 years. Because WE don’t change. We are Singular. We are the singularity, in our own lives.

WE can make so many statistics, charts and discoveries, but WE don’t change. We love and hate and envy and desire and believe and mistrust and worry now and before. 1000 years ago and (if we are close) 1000 years from now.

A client still wants, needs, or desires fun, love, security, pain relief, or…well, all the usual stuff. It doesn’t change. Now and forever amen (maybe?).