A knowledge system is a component of a society’s Epistemic Infrastructure. Specifically, it is a structured, dynamic, and transdisciplinary architecture for the production, organization, storage, validation, and dissemination of knowledge. A knowledge system encompasses the semantic, ontological, and procedural mechanisms by which advanced societies manage understanding and regulate access to truth claims. Knowledge systems are built upon advanced Knowledge Technology (Nakamori, 2021). They are initiated, developed, and maintained by committed Knowledge Stewards.
The idea of a knowledge system is not new. Indeed, the idea is almost a hundred years old now. Vannevar Bush called for development of such a system in his 1945 article “As We May Think” (Bush, 1945). Cognizant of science’s heavy involvement in the war effort, he called for a redirect of scientific energies towards peace and evolution. In the article, he urged scientists to develop “pacific instruments” that would give “[humanity] access to and command over the inherited knowledge of the ages.” Confronting the “growing mountain of research” and the inadequacy of “generations old” methods of transmitting knowledge, Bush envisioned a fundamental restructuring of how humanity organizes and retrieves information. He proposed “selection by association, rather than by indexing,” critiquing the “artificiality of systems of indexing” where data “can be in only one place.” Instead, he imagined a “memex”—a mechanized private library enabling “associative indexing” where “any item may be caused at will to select immediately and automatically another,” and where “the process of tying two items together is the important thing.” This memex would provide a comprehensive collection of “wholly new forms of encyclopedias…ready-made…ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified.” Here, knowledge would exist not as isolated facts but as interconnected pathways that mirror how “the human mind… operates by association.” A powerful theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical tool.
The goal of the memex and the pluggable “encyclopedias” was simple: make thinking easier, make knowledge production easier, make knowledge dissemination easier, knowledge retrieval easier, all with improvement of humanity’s condition in mind.
It’s a fascinating idea and it is remarkable that he envisioned this all the way back in 1945. I imagine he was inspired by the emergence of the computer at that time. Indeed, his words anticipate several technologies which did not exist at the time but came to exist as computer technologies rapidly advanced. The Internet (1983) allows connectivity, communication, and access to information from wherever. The WWW (1990) made that information easy to access. The development of Wiki software (1995) made online “encyclopedias” possible. The use of wiki software to implement online “encyclopedias” (Wikipedia, 2001) saw this realized. The emergence of modern touchscreen smartphones (2007) gave everybody on the globe instant access. The emergence of AI made the possibility of personalized Memex’s possible. The only thing missing now is an example of how that all works together. The SpiritWiki provides that.
We’ll talk more about how the SpiritWiki is the realization of Vannevar’s Knowledge System later. For now, have a look around (https://spiritwiki.lightningpath.org). Keep in mind as you browse that the SpiritWiki is a knowledge system devoted to Human Development and Human Potential. Reading it should improve your understanding of these concepts as well as all things related. Other knowledge systems are possible. We’ll talk about what makes something like the SpiritWiki a knowledge system next time.
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References
Bush, V. (1945). As we may think. The Atlantic Monthly, 1945(July). https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/
Nakamori, Y. (2021). Knowledge Technology: Converting Data and Information into Valuable Ideas. Springer.