Knowledge
Title: Access to knowledge over time.
A little black square is drawn = 1 nugget of knowledge
Subtitle: The Olden Times
From left to right, a book with a cross on it is depicted. Beneath, there are two small black squares drawn, with a title “Books”.
A Triangle-parent (black under their eyes) is feeding a baby. Many black squares are drawn, plus one longer rectangle, as if a couple of squares merged together, with a title “Parents”.
A Triangle-person is hitting a piece on an anvil, sweating. Another Triangle-person is pointing to the piece with dissatisfied expression. A couple of black squares are drawn, plus two contiguous rectangles, titled “Work”.
Subtitle: The Paper Days.
Stack of books is drawn. Beneath - two longer rectangles, titled “Books”.
A taller Triangle-person seems to be telling a smaller Triangle-person off. Two black squares, one rectangle, titled “Parents”.
A Triangle-person toiling at the desk, writing something on a piece of paper. 4 black squares, and two rectangles, titled “School”.
A confused person is looking at an abacus. Three rectangles are shown, longer than anything before, titled “Work”.
Subtitle: The Retro Days.
An old PC is depicted in stylish gray. The monitor is showing a sphere, with an input dialog below. A Triangle-person next to it is holding a mouse in the air, smiling. 14 black squares are drawn below, titled “The Web”.
A taller Triangle-person seems to be telling a smaller Triangle-person off. The smaller person is wearing headphones and staring at a handheld device, with the music blaring. Below, two black squares are drawn, titled “Parents”.
An university Triangle-graduate is shown, holding a diploma and smiling broadly. 6 black squares, and one long rectangle is shown, titled “School”.
A Triangle-person is shown double-clicking a mouse, and table of data is shown in the background, with a mouse pointer overlaid. A single very long rectangle is drawn below, longer than anything seen before, titled “Work”.
Subtitle: The Now-a-days.
A Triangle-person is shown speaking to a screen showing a progress mark / stylised logo, with words under it: “How do I…”. The screen is connected to several layers of little blobs, all interconnected by lines, with the last layer connecting to boxes containing some data. Below, a very very long black strip is drawn, occupying half the screen. Title says: “A.I. chat”.
A Triangle-person is shown looking at a laptop, showing a YouTube logo. A crowd of people acts shocked/bemused (with just the baby enjoying themselves). Below, another very very long black strip is drawn, titled “Tutorial video by a stranger”.
The two strips in this section taken together fill nearly the entire width of the screen, with just one small gap in the middle.
I’m trying to depict here how human knowledge access evolved over time.
In the “olden days”, perhaps before 17th century, majority of the knowledge was passed orally - from parents, mentors and masters. There was scarcely any widely available other sources of knowledge, and I imagine not much of it printed. A typical person in a European household might have had access to the Bible, if lucky.
After printing, paper and reading ability spread throughout 18th century, access to knowledge widened. There were more books available on more topics, and public schooling in 19th century made access possible for a lot more people. Nevertheless, people still learned from parents, but I imagine they also developed deeper, more focused knowledge at work through an ongoing specialisation.
When the Internet rolled about in the 1990s, access to knowledge boomed. Many facts could now easily be found on the web, although deep knowledge wouldn’t be available online - for that, one would attend university, and then perhaps become a subject-matter expert at work, specialising deeply in a single discipline.
Finally, we have now. It has never been so simple to obtain deep knowledge, both theoretical and practical. An AI will explain to us any piece of human knowledge, no matter how complex. And tutorial videos made by strangers make it possible to learn any skill that requires demonstration.