Name: Knowing What we Know: The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic
Price: 35.65 NZD
Availability: InStock
Author: Simon Winchester
ISBN: 9780063142886

portada Knowing What we Know: The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic

Knowing What we Know: The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic

Type

Physical Book

Author

Simon Winchester

Publisher

Harper

Language

English

Pages

432

Format

Hardcover

ISBN13

9780063142886

Synopsis "Knowing What we Know: The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic "

From the creation of the first encyclopedia to Wikipedia, from ancient museums to modern kindergarten classes--this is award winning writer Simon Winchester'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--no need for math, no need for map-reading, no need for memorization--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--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 Mundanaeum, 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 Rene Descartes's Cogito, ergo sum--"I think therefore I am," the foundation for human knowledge widely accepted since the Enlightenment--still hold? And what will the world be like if no one in it is wise?

Simon Winchester

(Author)

View Author's Page

Simon Winchester. The biography of this popular British writer, journalist, and broadcaster is filled with anecdotes: in 1977, The Guardian appointed him as a foreign correspondent in New Delhi, and he drove there from Oxford. While covering the Falklands occupation for The Sunday Times in 1982, he was kidnapped. He has dedicated his life to writing informative books, among which The Professor and the Madman stands out. For his services to journalism and literature, he was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

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