12/1/2006

Knowledge and Symbolism

“Symbolic reasoning radically transformed human beings’ ability to communicate information.”

WHY?

HOW?

Oral encyclopedias are perishable and short lived. “It took symbolic artifacts to put culture on a more lasting footing.”

13 Behold the Lord ^aslayeth the ^bwicked to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is ^cbetter that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in ^dunbelief.

14 And now, when I, Nephi, had heard these words, I remembered the words of the Lord which he spake unto me in the wilderness, saying that: ^aInasmuch as thy seed shall keep my ^bcommandments, they shall ^cprosper in the ^dland of promise.

15 Yea, and I also thought that they could not keep the commandments of the Lord according to the ^alaw of Moses, save they should have the law.

16 And I also knew that the ^alaw was engraven upon the plates of brass.

“Symbolic artifacts allowed knowledge to befome both collective and cumulative”

“Symbolic artifacts enable an elaborate division of labor across generations and not just within them.”

TOO MUCH INFORMATION?

Knowledge comes from the orderly loss of information

(abstraction)

We need to know what and how to screen information

How does information grow and what gets in the way of that growth?

Patent, copyright

“Break up Tiger Woods!”

WHY BUY WHAT YOU DON’T NEED? THE MARGINAL APPEAL OF AESTHETICS

http://www.idsa.org/webmodules/articles/articlefiles/Postrel.pdf