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From: gary@softway.oz (Gary Corby)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: What to know
Message-ID: <2038@softway.oz>
Date: 30 Aug 89 05:20:15 GMT
References: <56543@aerospace.AERO.ORG>
Organization: Softway Pty Ltd, Sydney, Australia
Lines: 32

(This followup is only going to comp.cog-eng because we don't receive the
other two groups and the system gets sick trying to cope with them)

abbott@aerospace.aero.org (Russell J. Abbott) writes:

>In the world of instantly accessible information that we are
>constructing I'm beginning to wonder what one should actually bother to
>learn.  That is, why know something when one can look it up using an
>information locator service?  I also wonder what the difference is
>between knowing something and knowing where to find out about something.

It has always been the case that the best students are the ones who
first learn _how_ to learn.  Knowing what to look for and where to find
it is not a new skill.  As to why some people are better at it than others
I don't know.  If you understood learning properly you would have the
basis for a neat AI.

It is still better for people to keep as much in 'cache' as possible
rather than rely on looking up.   Understanding a subject implies
permanent memory.  If you have to look up a theory then you surely do
not understand it.

For example it is possible to understand logarithms but not know the value
of any particular log n.  So sorry, but modern technology does _not_
reduce the amount you have to learn.  It merely makes it easier and
quicker to find the boring trivia.

Gary
-- 
Gary Corby  (Friend of Elvenkind)			Softway Pty Ltd
						ACSnet: gary@softway.oz
					UUCP: ...!uunet!softway.oz!gary