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Path: utzoo!mnetor!yetti!geac!john
From: john@geac.UUCP (John Henshaw)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Compatibility with EBCDIC (was Re: Was the 360 badly-designed?
Message-ID: <1361@geac.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 13-Sep-87 23:12:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: geac.1361
Posted: Sun Sep 13 23:12:43 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 15-Sep-87 00:38:07 EDT
References: <855@tjalk.cs.vu.nl> <2683@hoptoad.uucp> <916@haddock.ISC.COM> <666@uokmax.UUCP>
Organization: GEAC Computers, Toronto, CANADA
Lines: 35
Summary: knowledge != information

In article <666@uokmax.UUCP>, jlperkin@uokmax.UUCP (J Les Perkins) writes:
> 
>                  Six years ago someone said to me that in the past 20 years
>we have gained more knowledge than mankind has since its beginning. And as 
>computers get better and technology increases even faster our knowledge grows 
>even more rapidly. And with all these advances it is increasingly difficult to
>keep up.
>                                 I guess what I'm trying to say is we all need
>to be more open to changes, because we definately have more changes ahead of us
>than we have already seen with advances coming faster every day.
> 
>JLP

I think you saying "knowledge" when you should be saying "information".
It is clear that the current state-of-the-art in information gathering
is moving along nicely, but I will argue that we are not moving along in
the same way with respect to "knowledge". (In fact, we *could* be
regressing somewhat - due mainly to the displacement of "knowledge" by
"information" in our consciousness. Any comments?)

In fact, it seems that the big push in longer-term R&D is towards
"knowledge-based technologies", since we already have "information
technologies" today. I see the difference between to two concepts as:

information := facts
knowledge   := inferences based upon facts (information)

I don't see the massive gathering of information as "advances", but more
as the raw material for future possibilities. 

-john-
-- 
John Henshaw,			(mnetor, yetti, utgpu !geac!john)
Geac Computers Ltd.		"My back to the wall,
Markham, Ontario, Canada, eh?		 a victim of laughing chance..."