Knowledge or Information?

For quite some time, there has been quite a lot of talk about 'General Knowledge'. There are even subjects in the school curricula called GK (General Knowledge). Let us together go into what it actually is.

Oxford English Dictionary defines knowledge as: Intellectual perception of fact or truth; clear and certain understanding or awareness. What I understand from this definition and my own perception is that knowledge is a reusable and expandable form of information. As a trivial example, suppose I know that touching something hot is going to burn me and I know that a frying pan is hot, I can connect the dots and figure out that touching the frying pan is going to burn me. Now if I see something else that is hot, for example an electric iron, I can deduce that it will not be prudent to touch it either! The knowledge has been reused in a new circumstance. If I propose a theory in fluid dynamics today and advance the humankinds' knowledge in that area, the very fact that the theory can be applied to any scenario that comes within its purview makes it, well, a scientific theory or a fact.

Another facet that must be emphasized when talking about knowledge is that it must be expandable. The application of knowledge should enhance knowledge itself. Using the same example as above, if I touch something that I know nothing about and end up burning my finger, I can deduce that it is something that is normally hot, and hence I gather a fact that may be of use when characterizing the thing.

Now consider a sample of what constitutes the subject of GK as it is taught in schools and tested in examinations at all levels (The first result when I search for GK questions on Google):

• Who was the first prime minister of < insert country here>?
  
• What is the name of the longest river in the world?
  
• What is the name of the longest highway in the world?
  
• What is the length of the English Channel?
  And so forth……………………………..
  

Now how would you rate the questions above as reusable sources of knowledge? On the basis of expandability? I, for one, can't see the utility of knowing the name of a person who happens to be at a certain post at a certain place of the world. And even if I do know the name, what use is it? How is that going to help me know anything else? How am I going to expand my horizons based on that fact?

Now don't get me wrong! I certainly don't want to trivialize knowing all this stuff and don't intend to rile people that have vast stores of information. But to put things in perspective, let's first stop calling information as knowledge. Only then would we be able to realize that information is the first step to knowledge. A fact, when learnt and known constitutes information. The very fact, when used, and reused, and expanded upon, and assimilated, becomes knowledge. It ceases to be a showpiece, and becomes a tool. And tools can always be used to generate more showpieces.

The passenger in a car

Let's imagine that you have a beautiful, highly functional and a shining new car. It's an epitome of artistic finesse and the very symbol of perfection. You are, quite naturally, bedazzled by its prosaic beauty. You tend to spend all your waking hours on the car's upkeep, polishing it, greasing it, oiling it, listening for abnormal noises, driving it to the fuel station to get a refill ad infinitum. Lather, Rinse Repeat. You never use it to actually go somewhere, but are unusually fussy about even the fuel station that you use for a refill. This goes on and on and on. Every day of your life is spent tending to the car, but not using it as much. Sometimes the car breaks down, and you spend sleepless nights while it is at the workshop, agonizing over the distress your beloved car is going through.

And then, suddenly, when the car is almost past its useful life, you realize the car was hardly ever used. Now that you think of using it, it will no longer do your bidding, as it is no longer up to it. Remember, it is almost the time to go to a scrap yard.

You might say, why this long and ridiculous harangue? Wait, I am coming to that! Well, consider that the car is the body you have been bestowed with, and the passenger is your intellect, your brain, your soul, if you will. The scenario above in not so foreign, when you consider that most of us do nothing to improve upon our intellectual prowess and our spiritual moorings all our lives. We just cater to our physical needs, choosing what to eat and where (remember the fuss over choosing the fuel station?), what to wear and improving our looks, and building more comfortable sheds and garages to park our cars, bodies, while are passenger is sitting idle, twiddling his thumbs. We keep on serving the vehicle, earning money to fulfill what it needs and desires all our lives.
And then, at the dusk of our lives, we realize that our detour on Mother Earth will soon come to an end and our passenger has travelled little. We try making last ditch efforts to make him travel. We have all seen people well past superannuation drowning themselves in spiritual texts and religious discourses, haven't we? But, by then, these carry no meaning, because there is no area where you can apply those lessons any more. It is simply a waste of time and a rescue attempt that is fated to failure at the very start.
We should all gaze inside and realize that the lives we are leading are a journey of the soul. It is our responsibility to provide a well oiled vehicle, a well maintained body, for the soul to travel. But let's not miss the forest for the trees and make the soul serve the body, rather than the other way round.

The motivation for and the origin of this Blog

The name:

The name of this blog, the 5^th dimension, has been inspired by an incident that is described in a book that I happen to be reading at the moment. The book is called Einstein, the life and times by Robert C. Clark.

Einstein, in his later years, was averse to believing the concept that the quantum phenomena are not deterministic and causal. Somebody once asked him: If electrons are shot at a lead sheet with two holes, one at a time, an interference pattern is observed on a screen placed behind the sheet. Which Hole does the electron actually pass through? To this, Einstein replied in jest: "It passes through the fifth Dimension!" He was trying to imply some kind of cryptic and mystic connotations to the word the 5^th dimension, and hence the name.

My URL Choice: Crypticvaibhav.blogspot.com

I have always been an enigmatic thinker, even to myself on occasions. Running the risk of being considered immodest, I consider myself to have a knack of driving to a root of every matter and trying to decipher the design of it. As Einstein famously said once in response to a telegram by Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein, and I quote, I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings, unquote. Whatever be the fact, whoever says it, if I can't fit it in with my world view, it is impossible to coerce me to believe in it. Doesn't it make me a bit cryptic?

Why a Blog?

I am a person very fond of a healthy discussion on any topic under the sun, and I hope this forum provides me with illuminated opinions on topics I choose to post. Some people consider me argumentative, possibly a character flaw that is attributed to me, but I generally don't mean to. I just think in a manner that is too tightly integrated with what logic dictates, but would be the first one to admit if my logical premise breaks down in certain circumstances. I seek the help of the web community to show me the other facets of my conjectures and premises.

I have always been quite fond of reading and have been an extensive and an intensive reader, sometimes even both. I am trying my hand at writing for almost the first time; let's see how it goes in future.

Hope to see you again in this space. I would really appreciate constructive criticism, and topics to spark discussion and thought.

Au Revoir.

Hey I started a Blog

After months of procrastinating and just not being able to come around to it, I finally managed to start a blog. Let me wish myself best of luck J. See you here on a regular basis! Au revoir.