Close your eyes and envision yourself in a time when the only way to acquire knowledge was through face-to-face conversations with wise elders or by painstakingly studying handwritten manuscripts. From the moment we began sharing stories around the campfire, knowledge has been the backbone of human progress and evolution.
Through each passing generation, the transfer of knowledge has empowered us to shape the world and our understanding of it in unprecedented ways. While knowledge has always been ingrained in us as humans, the way it is transferred has changed significantly throughout the ages. Stories around the campfire were eventually written down and now they are transformed into bits and bytes and transferred over the internet.
The intimate atmosphere of a campfire, with the flickering flames casting shadows on the faces of eager listeners might have made the stories that were shared captivating, but these methods of transferal have major flaws. As time passes, much of the information shared is inevitably lost or changed. Much like the game of Chinese Whispers, where the original message gets distorted as it passes from person to person. Scientific research has now confirmed that our memories change with time and can even be altered by our brain. Rendering personal accounts somewhat unreliable for preserving knowledge. It is easy to imagine how much valuable knowledge must have been lost before the advent of written records. Without a written record, much information was unable to be passed down from generation to generation, leaving gaps in our collective knowledge.
Around 3000 BCE, something profound happened: the development of writing began independently in different civilisations, such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, and later, China. This is undoubtedly one of the most significant milestones in human history. It allowed knowledge to travel without being altered by our memory, enabling it to reach other continents and people. Humanity was finally able to keep a record of its history, write down its stories, and document its inventions. The written word has proven to be a crucial tool for scientific and technological advances, enabling us to share information more effectively than ever before. The possibility of building upon one another's ideas has propelled and broadened human knowledge throughout the centuries.
A collective wisdom built together
It is as if we are building upon the shoulders of giants, constantly innovating and learning new things. So much so that we continue to reap the benefits of discoveries that were made centuries ago. In today’s modern age technology is advancing so rapidly because we are even able to transfer this knowledge faster than before. Not long ago most knowledge was acquired through books and required you to travel to a book store or a library. In today's digital age, knowledge is merely a click away, rendering the once-essential weekly trip to the library significantly less convenient compared to browsing online resources like Wikipedia.
With the advent of the internet, we have an unprecedented amount of knowledge and information at our fingertips. Now we don’t even need to hold the information in our memory that long. We can search in seconds. With Google, we essentially have the ability to search through humanity's collective intelligence on the internet. The phrase "let's Google it" has become an integral part of our everyday language, reflecting our modern reality where our brains are constantly bombarded with more information than our ancestors could have ever imagined. Humanity shifted from primarily acquiring information and trying to remember it, to accessing and applying it instead.
As humanity continues to innovate, we consistently improve the accessibility of our collective knowledge. With search engines now seamlessly integrated into our daily routines, the effort and expense of acquiring and accessing information have been dramatically diminished. Basically all that is left is the need for a simple smart phone and an internet connection. Increasingly the value is not in the ability to remember or acquire knowledge but to apply it. If you understand what the other person is trying to explain, then the only remaining task is to apply that knowledge, perhaps even adding your own unique twist.
The acquisition of knowledge
Witnessing an infant learn is truly captivating. They persistently experiment, repeatedly failing until they succeed. Gradually, their brain develops, enabling them to master tasks like placing a block in a box, standing, or walking. It's a mesmerising process to behold. In a somewhat similar way we are now teaching machines to recognise patterns and make connections. We supply it a bunch of information called data and by trial and error it starts recognising patterns. Sometimes we help the machine a little by giving it the correct information so it can learn faster.
Gradually, these machines become so proficient at their tasks that humans may struggle to discern patterns within the same short timeframe. Our brains simply aren't capable of processing the vast quantities of information we frequently feed into our computers.
Computers have become so powerful that your little device called a smart phone has significantly more computational power than the computer that put astronauts on the moon half a century ago. A couple of decades ago, even the president of the United States didn't have access to such a powerful computer, let alone one that could fit in the palm of a hand. Currently, nearly 7 billion people possess smartphones. In the not-so-distant past, the distinctive sound of a dial-up modem signified a successful connection to the internet. As a new generation emerges, the world they will know is one where the internet and artificial intelligence are as essential as air and water, leaving them to wonder how anyone could have lived without them.
Ultimately, even language, with its inherent complexity, can be distilled into statistical patterns. Essentially, language is a computational challenge that computers can tackle using statistical methods. Over time, these large language models have gotten such a gist for our language that they now appear to possess a fully-developed linguistic mind. No longer an infant uttering its first words, they resemble more of a mature adult, capable of engaging in extensive conversations. Tools like ChatGPT demonstrate this remarkable evolution, something that was unimaginable just a few years ago.
Despite all the enthusiasm, Alan Turing warned us that a moment would come when these tools could become more powerful than us. In one of his lectures, he cautioned his captivated audience:
It seems probable that once the machine thinking method had started, it would not take long to outstrip our feeble powers… They would be able to converse with each other to sharpen their wits. At some stage therefore, we should have to expect the machines to take control.
My hope is that we will wield these wondrous tools to not only sharpen our knowledge but also optimise our workflows and unleash our innate creativity, focusing on the pursuits that truly matter. These tools may act as a second brain, a sparring partner, but I hope they will not replace our own skeptical, critical and creative thoughts. Because if knowledge is power, then maybe we shouldn’t give it all away so willingly.