In the last Act we looked at the role that trust plays in our behaviour and arrived at the following conclusion:
"The greater our desire for something not apparent and the greater our concern over something that appears to be, the more we will be compelled to seek trust. Where can we find trust? In skills born of experience or in beliefs.”
This led into looking to knowledge to see how that fitted into the trust model of behaviour. Knowledge is like a belief that has been qualified either through direct experiment, critical examination or by trusting experts or peers to review for us.
To know, I must interact directly with my sensory apparatus - see, smell, touch, taste and or hear.
Knowledge, however grants accepted or pre-qualifed “facts” as satisfactory evidence for a “thing” to be known.
Know - to recognise or identify
Knowledge - facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.
We have gone from something that is personally verifiable to the outsourcing of validity, this leaves us in very uncertain place.
While the scientific method is just, in that it is open to all to test, replicate and form new hypothesis from the findings, it is not without its challenges.
These are the challenges that I see, (as a non scientist)
What is a thing? - Facts are pieces of a larger moving picture
The scientific method used to qualify facts is only as good as the instruments and techniques used to make the observation and of course, the observer and qualifiers themselves may have agendas or blind spots.
That leaves us with 3 main challenges
1 - Facts are separated from a dynamic interrelated reality. - they are stripped of context.
2 - Sensitivity of instruments and limitations of methods. - ability to measure
3 - As the observations become more complex and expensive, fewer “peers” have the ability to access and replicate or decide which questions will be asked - who is measuring and what are they are looking for effects the quality and usefulness of what is concluded and “sanctified”.
1 - Stripping context, dissociates consequence
To be able to apply a pattern to different circumstances, we must create labels, classifications and “variables” that can later be added in, to reflect the new scenario.
Before we can establish a predicable relationship between two objects, we have to label them and assign values to them, these conveniences form the conventions of our language.
Our ancestors use stories, we use science. Either way, leads us to think in terms of our world as being full of separate “things” that we have values for and possibly opinions about.
How to mine and refine concrete, how to mix it with metal and sand, how to add it steel structures is very generic information, that can be shared relatively easily. The downstream consequences of doing so,(on other people and even other species) is much harder to know.
When our ancestors taught a skill such as making fire, throwing spears or tracking, hunting and killing animals, there were rituals and ceremonies built around them. They may of taken years to master so the consequences of learning the skills came together with the knowledge.
Knowledge of mathematics, chemistry, physics, engineering and even marketing have advanced rapidly compared to evolutionary or geological factors. We have shared extremely powerful modalities for changing both the environment and individual behaviours, long before we even understood the potential consequences for doing so.
2 - Knowledge is a matter of dates
What is a fact today, is often found to be dependant on previously unknown “factors” or it may simply be found not be true at all in a year, a decade or century from now. Knowledge is at best a temporary map or framework to be added to and updated, yet we argue about differences in these maps as though they "Are” the reality that they represent.
3 - In experts we trust
Very few of us, take the things we need from nature directly, mostly we trade using money. We get that money by selling goods and services, which we value based upon the emotions we attach to them. The amount of money we earn is derived from our ability to influence those emotions, by creating both real and perceived benefits.
Our expertise determines the amount of respect, money and influence we have. We take knowledge very personally because it determines how we will be valued and treated. We store knowledge for our benefit and we feel threatened when its validity comes into question. When we become attached to knowledge, it goes from being a temporary framework to a rigid opinion.
Even well trained scientists, unless they have a practice of searching for and clearing such attachments, are incapable of objectivity. Meditation or anything that requires deep commitment to pure sensation can be seen as the practice of developing and maintaining integrity. Of not taking knowledge, memory and concepts personally.
Conclusion:
We can not put the genie of knowledge back in its bottle, nor should we try. What may perhaps be more useful is looking more closely at how it effects our ability to remain objective about its applications.
How knowledge is used to build social as well as physical structures, and how anything that is unyielding creates conflict and turbulence in an organic and flowing world of ecology.
How we become attached to knowledge, how we use it to build fragile identities that are reactive and easily upset.
Knowledge is tricky, and to be truly valuable it must be given context, it must be reassessed and easily updatable upon receiving fresh evidence.
That evidence can only be found in the realm of our senses, yet the more attached to knowledge we are, the more time we spend lost in our thoughts as we try to make sense from the conflict we creating.
Knowledge is awesome in its power, when we remain curious and allow it to grow and be updated, it can be a source of great joy. The more we cling to it and use it for personal gain, the more it ruins relationships, between people and between peoples and their habitats.
Remember, the reason we turn to from outward awareness to inner memory and concept? Is it not because we wish to alter or influence the flow of events that would otherwise occur?
Which brings us to the next Act in the series - Desire
Knowledge is a bit of a sacred cow, in the past, I have annoyed people I respect greatly by trying to have this dialogue. So I am really curious to know if this resonated with you, or if I have wasted your valuable reading time? Its ok, I won’t take it personally I promise…(been there done that).
Thank you as always for reading
=8-P
Wisdom as Action Series
Act 1 - Do you remember?
Act 2 - What is Love?
Act 3 - Feeling Swell
Act 4 - Bound to be Free
Act 5 - Trust Issues
Act 6 - Knowledge
Act 7 - All you Desire