by tahanson43206 » Mon Jul 25, 2016 12:53 pm
A repository of personal knowledge might include notes on refrigeration in general, and on manufacture and maintenance of refrigeration equipment including heat pumps.
As I look out at the human global civilization of 2016, I see a variety of levels of knowledge and skill, some in the ascendancy, some in a steady state, some in decay, some existing only in books or other media, and many gone altogether.
Communities living away from Earth will certainly lack the numbers of humans living on Earth today, for many years if not centuries.
Digital communication with the people of Earth can alleviate the lack of specific skills and knowledge, so long as there are people on Earth willing to assist those living elsewhere, and as long as there are people in those remote locations willing to accept knowledge and advice from Earth. A related need is for the ability to sustain communications on both ends. An economic incentive for the Earth side of the link may be the perceived value of creative content received from remote locations, where perspective will change over time, as compared to the constantly changing culture on Earth.
Robots with artificial intelligence may fill in the gap, by preserving and perhaps even improving levels of skill and knowledge in specific fields. Atom assembler equipment, much like 3D Printers of 2016, will permit humans at remote locations to receive and employ new structures of matter developed on Earth, or passed along via Earth from other remote communities.
However, setting aside the prospect of communities away from Earth, as I look out at the scene in 2016, I can see that there are many communities with insufficient numbers of people with appropriate levels of skill and knowledge to sustain a "normal" life in the community. A working definition of this situation is "poverty". In this view, "poverty" is a condition of inability to secure resources from the environment sufficient to sustain the community.
Communications may provide a way for residents of small, isolated communities on Earth today, to participate in economic activity elsewhere on the planet, or away from the planet if light speed delay is small.
A topic for next week might be material such as wood, both natural and artificial.
(th)
May every member of The Knowledge forum grow financially, intellectually, socially and beyond.