Knowing What We Know: How we acquire, retain and communicateknowledge from ancient times to the era of big data

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'A delightful compendium of the kind of facts you immediately want to share with anyone you encounter' New York Times'An ebullient, irrepressible spirit invests this book. It is erudite and sprightly'Sunday Times
From the creation of the first encyclopedia to Wikipedia, from ancient museums to modern kindergarten classesaEURO"here is award-winning writer Simon WinchesteraEURO (TM)s brilliant and all-encompassing look at how humans acquire, retain, and pass on information and data, and how technology continues to change our lives and our minds.

With the advent of the internet, any topic we want to know about is instantly available with the touch of a smartphone button. With so much knowledge at our fingertips, what is there left for our brains to do? At a time when we seem to be stripping all value from the idea of knowing things aEURO" no need for maths, no need for map reading, no need for memorisation aEURO" are we risking our ability to think? As we empty our minds, will we one day be incapable of thoughtfulness?

Addressing these questions, Simon Winchester explores how humans have attained, stored and disseminated knowledge. Examining such disciplines as education, journalism, encyclopedia creation, museum curation, photography and broadcasting, he looks at a whole range of knowledge diffusion aEURO" from the cuneiform writings of Babylon to the machine-made genius of artificial intelligence, by way of Gutenberg, Google and Wikipedia to the huge Victorian assemblage of the Mundaneum, the collection of everything ever known, currently stored in a damp basement in northern Belgium.

Studded with strange and fascinating details, Knowing What We Know is a deep dive into learning and the human mind. Throughout this fascinating tour, Winchester forces us to ponder what rational humans are becoming. What good is all this knowledge if it leads to lack of thought? What is information without wisdom? Does RenA (c) DescartesaEURO (TM) aEURO~Cogito, ergo sumaEURO (TM)aEURO"'I think, therefore I amaEURO (TM), the foundation for human knowledge widely accepted since the EnlightenmentaEURO"still hold?

And what will the world be like if no one in it is wise?

Book details and technical specifications

Format: Paperback / softback
ISBN13: 9780008484422
Published: April 2024

Number of pages: 432
Width: 129 mm
Height: 198 mm
Depth: 35 mm

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers