People pride themselves with being the only intelligent creature on Earth. After hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years, we understand fire, metalworking, nuclear fusion and dark energy. This knowledge allows us to live in communities of tens of millions and cyber-communities even larger. Research builds on our knowledge and our intelligence keeps growing.
But, this pursuit of knowledge requires great effort. Personally, researchers need over 20 years of study, sometimes up to 30 years, before they are a competent practitioner in their field. To get there, they study textbooks and papers and undergo careful tutelage from an expert. This process consumes huge amounts of energy, whether in instilling knowledge or in preserving knowledge.
With an endless supply of energy, knowledge can be continually built upon. Discoveries are preserved in repositories and laboratories keep prising new details from the murk of nature. But what happens when energy supplies diminish? How do we choose what is worthwhile to keep and what must be relegated back to the unknown.
For example, supersonic air transport relied upon a thorough understanding of windflow and combustion chambers at high speeds. But, perhaps more importantly, supersonic aircraft were shown to be non-viable given the death of the Concorde. What if any of this information is pertinent to pass along to other generations?
In effect, we can say that we’re already pruning the knowledge tree by dropping hypothesis that aren’t viable. A decrease in the supply of energy will reduce our ability to preserve knowledge already obtained or advance knowledge in new directions. Should we decide what part of the knowledge tree should be preserved or will we allow serendipity to decide for us?
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Thank you for sharing!