Replying to LO30538 --
Dear Organlearners,
Hal Popplewell < GaltJohn44@aol.com > wrote:
>I have been "lurking" here for many months and would like
>to start a new thread for those whom are interested.
Greetings dear Hal,
Welcome Hal
>As much technology as all this takes, it is merely
>INFORMATION.
(snip)
>This part is KNOWLEDGE although it is being
>executed within a computer.
The two examples you have given (a computer representing data in a
comprehensive manner and a computer acting upon data in a directive
manner) still boil down to the same thing. They have been programmed by
humans and not by themselves. However, knowledge is rather the capacity
to act effectively without needing to be prescribed how to do so. This
capacity is acquired through the process of learning which do not
require programming by other humans.
>Of course far and away the MOST knowledge resides within
>the people. We just program small bits of their knowledge
>which are needed often or needed by others.
>
>Is this distinction valuable to anyone but me? Is there interest
>in what I'll call a repository for EXECUTEABLE knowledge?
Your distinction is valuable. But i will take an even strong viewpoint
by deleting the "MOST". Knowledge lives only in the mind of a person
while information exists outside it, whether the source is paper or
computer based. The majority of people think that sources of
information also contain knowledge. But i think that a mind with the
appropiate knowledge is required to digest such information so as to
increase that knowledge. The organisation of information may have
several hirarchial levels. But not even one of them can be called
knowledge.
To produced information requires knowledge. Knowledge also has several
hirarchial levels. One of them is formal knowledge, i.e., knowledge
which had been formulated into information. This formal knowledge
emerges from tacit knowledge, i.e, knowledge which has not yet been
articulated.
Knowledge has several properties. One of them is that the wholeness of
it is increasing continually. For example, various topics get fit into
one subject and various subjects get fit into one faculty. Since
information always exist in packets like articles on paper or files in
a computer, it lacks the wholeness of knowledge.
According to my viewpoint i will call your "repository for EXECUTEABLE
knowledge" rather the "repository for EXECUTEABLE information". The
fact that it is executed by a computer makes it not fundamentally
different from an operating manual of some machine. It is interesting
that in a laboratory where many different instruments are housed, their
operating manuals are stored at the same place. Thus your "repositary"
does make sense.
We live in a world in which different viewpoints on almost every
distinction (like the one between knowledge and information) exist. Any
viewpoint of a person is part of that person's knowledge. To deny a
viewpoint is thus to deny a person some of his/her knowledge, something
which i will never want to do.
With care and best wishes,
--At de Lange <amdelange@postino.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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