quote:

ORIGINAL: Stephann

Sorry, you're not quite accurate.

Technology is power.  As the Inca, as the Apache, ask the Dacians, ask West Africans in the 14-1800s.  The ability to wage war, technologically, has always given power to the individual and to civilizations.

It's not what you know, nor who you know, but what you do with what you know.  That's what technological capacity represents.  Bill Gates is a prime example of a man who wasn't very smart, but was smart and savvy enough to leverage what he did know, well.

Stephan

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ORIGINAL: sexyred1

do you honestly think there will come a time when everyone knows or has access to all the information out there?

the fact is, knowledge is power, but knowledge with understanding is more powerful.

there will never be a time when we catch up to learning everything there is in the universe to know and even if we did, something new would be developed in the next nanosecond.

so there is no catching up, only trying to stay marketable.

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ORIGINAL: Darcyandthedark

Knowledge - power.  And absolute power corrupts absolutely.
I don't believe in knowledge being powerful.  Those that think that have already lost any power they may have.  It's all proverbs I know, but the more you know, the less you understand.
 
the.dark.

Maybe we just need bigger, better brains, or more education in using them

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ORIGINAL: pahunkboy

timing is everything.    a computer before electricy would be useless.  one can have great resoures and talent but if the timing is wrong nothing works.

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ORIGINAL: philosophy

...knowledge isn't power.......the ability to act on knowledge is. It's all very well knowing that if you had a long enough lever and a place to sit it you could move the world...but unless you actually have such a lever and such a place, you're powerless to move the world.
Perhaps a more accurate platitude would be knowledge + opportunity to exercise knowledge = power

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ORIGINAL: Ryugen

quote:

ORIGINAL: philosophy

...knowledge isn't power.......the ability to act on knowledge is. It's all very well knowing that if you had a long enough lever and a place to sit it you could move the world...but unless you actually have such a lever and such a place, you're powerless to move the world.
Perhaps a more accurate platitude would be knowledge + opportunity to exercise knowledge = power

Just because you know that a well placed lever can move the world, doesn't mean you know where to get or how to use that lever. So, you'd still need to know quite a bit to be able to use that lever to move the world. If you knew how to get a hold of, and use, all of the resources involved, including time, to complete something, then you're set.

Small edit to correct wording.

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ORIGINAL: pahunkboy

this is sorta like which came first the chicken or the egg.  I think there is more then 1 right answere.

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ORIGINAL: Ryugen

You kinda retorted yourself by then going on to say that what you do with the knowledge is power. But let me explain, if you didn't have the knowledge, you'd have nothing to work with. Therefore that still says knowledge is power. You don't need to prove you have knowledge to have it. Also, Bill Gates was a software hacker, I'd say he's one smart cookie.

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ORIGINAL: philosophy

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ORIGINAL: Ryugen

quote:

ORIGINAL: philosophy

...knowledge isn't power.......the ability to act on knowledge is. It's all very well knowing that if you had a long enough lever and a place to sit it you could move the world...but unless you actually have such a lever and such a place, you're powerless to move the world.
Perhaps a more accurate platitude would be knowledge + opportunity to exercise knowledge = power

Just because you know that a well placed lever can move the world, doesn't mean you know where to get or how to use that lever. So, you'd still need to know quite a bit to be able to use that lever to move the world. If you knew how to get a hold of, and use, all of the resources involved, including time, to complete something, then you're set.

Small edit to correct wording.

..interesting logic. Of course if you characterise all the facets of the opportunity to do something as knowledge then you can argue that knowledge is power. However that also requires a deterministic universe, one where quantum mechanics has been changed from providing probabilistic answers to absolute ones. Good luck with that. Seems to me though, that as long as we can only know the vector or velocity of a particle, one or the other, then knowledge can not be absolute. Knowledge can not be the only factor involved.

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ORIGINAL: Ryugen

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ORIGINAL: sexyred1

do you honestly think there will come a time when everyone knows or has access to all the information out there?

the fact is, knowledge is power, but knowledge with understanding is more powerful.

there will never be a time when we catch up to learning everything there is in the universe to know and even if we did, something new would be developed in the next nanosecond.

so there is no catching up, only trying to stay marketable.

Maybe when we have discovered every natural law of the universe there will be nothing left to discover and then everyone will know everthing (although that hinges on whatever personal belief system you have)? Heh, Although I admit that such a thing would take a long time to do.

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ORIGINAL: sexyred1

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ryugen

quote:

ORIGINAL: sexyred1

do you honestly think there will come a time when everyone knows or has access to all the information out there?

the fact is, knowledge is power, but knowledge with understanding is more powerful.

there will never be a time when we catch up to learning everything there is in the universe to know and even if we did, something new would be developed in the next nanosecond.

so there is no catching up, only trying to stay marketable.

Maybe when we have discovered every natural law of the universe there will be nothing left to discover and then everyone will know everthing (although that hinges on whatever personal belief system you have)? Heh, Although I admit that such a thing would take a long time to do.

How do you that there aren't lightyears and lightyears of natural laws of the universe and multiple universes out there to discover? I think that no one can be so arrogant to ever assume that any human being, no matter how brilliant, will ever master or harness the powers and mysteries of what lies beyond us in this universe or the universe of the future.

I like what philosophy had to say, that having knowledge plus the opportunity to exercise that knowledge is more applicable. I will also add the choices one makes in utilizing their knowledge is a key factor in how that knowledge is disseminated or even witheld. Haven't you ever met a brilliant person who was stupid about life and someone less educated who survived and thrived through instincts?  Who is more powerful of a person, the educated one or the uneducated one?

And, we know that there is a vast store of knowledge in various areas of our lives relating to medical breakthroughs, for example, where vital research information is being suppressed, because the release of this knowledge might upset the power of say, the pharmaceutical industry?

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ORIGINAL: sexyred1

Possibly, but I am not quite seeing where you are going with this general topic, unless you just wanted to start an intellectual thread among all the fun ones we had all day.

I would say that latter is definitely what I am trying to do. I enjoy intellectual debate very much, even if I sometimes end up arguing points I don't believe in merely for the sake of an interesting debate