Evolution of knowledge

In this topic, I would like to touch upon such a topic as the evolution of knowledge. Information will be presented thesis. But, I hope, this will only invite the reader to additional reflections in the comments!

Evolution is a natural process of qualitative transformation of any system in the Universe. () Therefore: The evolution of knowledge is a natural process of qualitative transformation of the system of knowledge and ideas about this world.

It is possible to divide the evolution of knowledge as such into:

1. personal - how our ideas about the world change over time within ourselves
2. interpersonal - how the idea of ​​a particular aspect is transformed when it is exchanged between different people

Much has been written about personal development, so I will not specifically touch on it.

As in the case of (genetic) human evolution, the qualitative transformation of knowledge occurs during interaction. The following levels of information perception are distinguished ( Knowledge-Based Software Engineering (V. Stefanyuk) ):

1. Programming level - can be briefly described as: “do as I do”. At this level, a person perceives exactly how he should do this or that thing. There is no logic - a person only understands that he must (and even must) do everything exactly as he says. Understanding why this is so, and not otherwise lies outside this level. A typical example of perception at this level: training in tennis or any other sport.
2. Level of explanations - explanations at this level can contain all elements used at the previous level. However, in addition to the person, specific examples are given, knowing that he can solve other problems from the same field in an image.
3. The level of analogies - the level at which a person is able to find some analogies with the already existing knowledge or skills. At this level of perception, a person is able to find some common features, laws, and summarize the material.
4. The level of creativity - at this level, a person is able to find the tools for solving problems that he has never encountered before. When using this level of perception, often new knowledge or laws appear that were previously unknown or not so obvious.

At the same levels can be divided and ways of presenting information. The most effective transfer of information occurs precisely when both the teacher (source of information) and the student (recipient of information) interact at the same cognitive level.
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Consider a simple example of transferring information at different levels:
The man wrote his problem on the forum: “Help! I can not connect my linux partition with windows / dev / sdb1. Advise me what to do? ”.
Here are examples of answers from different cognitive levels:

1. Programming level: create a directory for the connection with the command “mkdir / mnt / windows”, and then set the following line in "/ dev / sdb1 / mnt / windows auto noatime 0 0" in / etc / fstab
2. Level of explanation: I have this line in fstab "/ dev / sdc3 / mnt / myporn auto noatime 0 0" and everything works fine!
3. The level of analogies: I do not remember exactly how this is done, but you need to set the mapping between the device and the directory where you want to see the contents of the section. It's like ORM doing the mapping between the field name of your class and the physical field name in the database.
4. Level of creativity: "vim ./mount/mount.c ./mount/fstab.c" and go!

Question: what answer will be more understandable to the questioner if he is an absolute newcomer to Linux and is not going to study it? And if you still going? And if this is a programmer who knows hibernate passed to linux by the will of fate? And if this is a former Windows kernel developer from Microsoft?

Separately, I emphasize that during the exchange of information, both the teacher and the student are at their own cognitive level in relation to the subject of their interaction! But for the most effective exchange of information, the teacher and the student must be at the same level.

By the way, thanks to this simple rule we are “based” on one or another resource on the Internet.

• If you want to quickly get an answer to your question from a field in which you think badly at all, then the direct route to the thematic forum is: ask a question and surely someone will answer on your specific problem.
• If you want to appear wise in your eyes, then just go to the forums
• If you want to solve your problem, but there is no time for waiting for an answer on the forum, then you search by search engines: maybe someone has already encountered a similar problem and described how and what is solved
• If the problem has been captured so much and one wants to fully know its subject area, then you are looking for books, reviews, subscriptions, etc. on this topic
• If your problem is single or you have found some unique solution, then you create a topic on Habré, a forum, a startup, a book on this topic

There are two main directions of the evolution of knowledge:

1. Inductive evolution of knowledge: when more general is derived from the particular. For example, viewing a bunch of messages on the forums about how people can not mount a section with windows, you can write one good article for what and how. Inductive transformation occurs as a result of interaction between teacher and student, when the latter is at a higher level of cognitive perception. For example, a person can learn tennis, and then wondering why it is necessary to perform certain actions in this way, write a book “on the mechanics of tennis” where all the same things that the coaches show are based on physical language.
2. Deductive evolution of knowledge: when the theory turns into concrete instructions for action. For example, the "theory of dating with girls" can turn into specific trainings on the pickup. Deductive transformation occurs as a result of learning, when the teacher is at a higher cognitive level and he is forced to “simplify” the material into primitive instructions of the form “event-action”. For example, have you ever seen an experienced racer instruct a blonde girl to drive?

Each new class of problems undergoes a generalization (induction) at the beginning, and then popularization (deduction). For example, it might look like this:

• someone could not deal with the problem and described it on the forum,
• another person faced the same problem and described the subtleties of the question from his point of view,
• then there was a clever man who solved the problem and described it on the forum,
• after this topic caught my eye another good man who included the problem and solution in some FAQ,
• but here this FAQ was read by a writer who is just writing a book on this topic - he described the problem more broadly, exactly like the solution,
• books began to be sold and it is no secret how this problem is solved, but the book itself became fundamental in the new philosophy,
• This book was read by one practitioner and decided to arrange trainings on this philosophy, which he succeeded in doing,
• and your neighbor has come to trainings
• with which you have a cup of beer discussed the new developments in the social environment.