Brains and Knowledge

Brains are designed to store knowledge not information. Brains can store knowledge of a language that can decode information and convert it into knowledge. Since information must be decoded by a language process before it becomes knowledge there is considerable room for error in this process. To make this worse most natural languages have multiple definitions for some of its words and if the reader or listener chooses the wrong definition the true meaning of the information is lost. Information is a poor quality, undependable source of true knowledge and we all know that. This is why we have the old saying seeing is believing to reinforce our faith in direct knowledge. If you read a story about a great landmark like the Grand Canyon you might not believe what you read. But, if you go there and see it for yourself you can validate the information you read. Seeing direct knowledge from raw data can prove the accuracy of your understanding of the information you read.

You may have noticed the subject of truth keeps coming up; this is because it is one of the most important things to keep in mind when studying knowledge. Knowledge can be either true or false and brains have no way of knowing the difference. There is no such thing as a truth detector and we must always keep this in mind. Trillions of humans and animals have died unexpectedly over the years due to the effects of false knowledge.

Living systems often fail due to false knowledge or a lack of knowledge. Many sailors have died before they had knowledge of hurricanes. Children often get in trouble because they don't have the knowledge to predict the outcome of their actions. A system that acquires true knowledge has an advantage over any competitor with false knowledge.

Corporations can be destroyed by false knowledge. Recently many big corporations have collapsed do to false knowledge purposely placed in their balance sheets. Even governments like Soviet Communism have failed due to false knowledge. It was recently reported that the former Chairman Gorbachev admitted that the whole Russian communist system was based on lies. It is amazing that an entire human society, based on false knowledge, can exist and prosper for any length of time. But, if you look back you can see that most human societies were in fact based on some false knowledge.