"The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
We humans are brilliant beasts, inextricably bonded to a remarkable rational capacity. We notice patterns and pose questions, developing the concepts that shape our actions. That we can think is self-evident, but the influence of our thoughts is far more mysterious and meaningful than most know.
The digital age proffers a dangerous gift: a bottomless well of unfiltered information. From the unfathomable internet and university classrooms to the humble opinions of our peers, an endless flood of information overwhelms every endeavor we make. It seems that a reliable guide to aid our decisions must exist somewhere within these grand networks--yet the information is so vast and contradictory that the effort required to delve therein rarely seems worth it. So we fly on, blinded not by darkness but by this excessive digital light.
Knowing too much is a curious burden. Those living in ages past suffered when they did not know enough--now we suffer when we do not attend to what we have learned. Our ancestors strove to learn more and bequeath their knowledge unto us. No doubt this tradition will persist, as we continue to learn at a staggering rate. Yet it may also be that we, as heralds of the Digital Age, may offer a newly pertinent process: the distillation of information into knowledge.
To be informed is to have an understanding of an object's characteristics. To be knowledge-able is to perceive the relationship between yourself, the Knower, and the object in question, the Known--bridging the gap between information and ability. Action then binds the two together and shapes the world.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
We humans are brilliant beasts, inextricably bonded to a remarkable rational capacity. We notice patterns and pose questions, developing the concepts that shape our actions. That we can think is self-evident, but the influence of our thoughts is far more mysterious and meaningful than most know.
The digital age proffers a dangerous gift: a bottomless well of unfiltered information. From the unfathomable internet and university classrooms to the humble opinions of our peers, an endless flood of information overwhelms every endeavor we make. It seems that a reliable guide to aid our decisions must exist somewhere within these grand networks--yet the information is so vast and contradictory that the effort required to delve therein rarely seems worth it. So we fly on, blinded not by darkness but by this excessive digital light.
Knowing too much is a curious burden. Those living in ages past suffered when they did not know enough--now we suffer when we do not attend to what we have learned. Our ancestors strove to learn more and bequeath their knowledge unto us. No doubt this tradition will persist, as we continue to learn at a staggering rate. Yet it may also be that we, as heralds of the Digital Age, may offer a newly pertinent process: the distillation of information into knowledge.
To be informed is to have an understanding of an object's characteristics. To be knowledge-able is to perceive the relationship between yourself, the Knower, and the object in question, the Known--bridging the gap between information and ability. Action then binds the two together and shapes the world.