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Why some people know what you do not


Kriminal99

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Here we have two basic approaches to learning that people take on a subconcious level. This deals not with the specific ideas that people learn, but with the value system that people automatically use to deal with information presented to them.

 

On one hand we have the average person - when presented with information by a social structure, they attempt to build a knowledge base from it by recognizing how the pieces of information they recieve interact with one another. Upon building such a network of understanding, they even begin to make generalizations about the ideas they have been presented with. Such generalizations allow them to derive more details of the knowledge base without being given them. Different knowledge bases they have created are sometimes compared by metaphor, but what applies to one is known to not necessarily apply to all. In general their mind consists of many such seperate knowledge bases.

 

On the other hand we have people who take more of a top down approach to learning. They have built a knowledge base from every experience they have ever had that starts with the fundamental truths of all human knowledge. From there, they have derived knowledge bases dealing with more specific things like morality, economics, logic etc.. which themselves have derived knowledge bases like mathematics etc.

 

The latter group can only accept information that does not conflict the rules of a knowledge base higher up in the tree, whereas the former group has no knowledge bases higher up in the tree.

 

As only the latter group naturally builds accurate knowledge bases, it stands to reason that the former group got all of their information from the latter.

 

That is, the top down thinkers are and always have been the pillars of society that determine who, what and where... and have made attempts to pass parts of their knowledge bases to the rest such that those people can assist with their work.

 

This creates a problem in that the former group gets to a point where they have become able to avoid some problems with their limited knowledge, and therefore believe themselves to be knowledgable. Once their true teachers leave them, they begin to think of themselves as replacements despite their lack of complete understanding.

 

Without those knowledge bases higher up in the tree, they may derive ideas which would violate those supersets of knowledge if they had them. Thus if a new person of the latter group were to happen on the situation, it would be clear that there were problems with ideas championed by members of the former group.

 

But, having dealt with the smallest of issues delegated to them by their latter group mentors, they feel empowered to persist in their ignorance and ignore any claims by the next generation of the knowledgable latter group.

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