Used knowledge must go!
The motto of this year's "Secret Santa" in our family was: "Second-hand knowledge". This drew my attention to the concept of "used knowledge". We are talking here about knowledge, about understanding "Why?", as opposed to skills or knowledge "How?" Being able to ride a bike is a skill. Understanding why a cyclist cannot tip over is knowledge.
One of the most important realisations of mankind is that there are no absolute truths. All of humanity's knowledge has always been, is today, and will remain in the future, just a more or less extensive narrative. A story that we acquire more and more since childhood, so that in adulthood we regard it as "true" and no longer question it. You might be thinking: "But there are at least a few simple truths, such as 'We are all human'". Then we consider together whether this is really true. Do you really want to be in the same "bag" as all the dictators and other criminals in the world? Or would you rather see them all as "brutes"? Exactly. Each and every one of us certainly knows other examples of such only seemingly "absolute truths".
The knowledge about nature, that is the understanding of the natural world around us and within us, is something we have acquired step by step in the past. In the process, we have always further developed and deepened individual parts of this knowledge. For example, the Ptolemaic planetary system with the earth in the centre was replaced by the Copernican system with the sun in the centre. The Ptolemaic system thus became second-hand knowledge. Over time, too much of the used knowledge became ballast, especially for school programmes. If the knowledge is already "used up", it must be disposed of so that the new, innovative ideas can find their own place in the education of the younger generations. However, the new knowledge should not be seen as a substitute for the used knowledge. Only new knowledge has the potential to take us further than before in the exploration of nature. Tradition is good for the history of progress. But only new knowledge can guarantee the continuation of history for the future. To stay with the example of our planetary system, the Copernican solar system must now also be disposed of, because I have shown that the true centre of the system is not in the sun, but in Venus.
Therefore, my main thesis today is: Everything we have learnt about nature in our schools can (and must) be disposed of almost completely as second-hand knowledge. The entire knowledge about nature (of which we are a part) can now be found in my two latest books. One is the reference work: "Universal Philosophy of Life". And the second, "Me, You, and All of Us", also describes a practical proposal on how we can all survive the current century and the entire third millennium together. Future generations of people will gather their own knowledge, which will also turn these ideas of mine into used knowledge. But only if we give them the chance to be born at all.
So: all the best for the future of humanity!
Christmas, 2022.
UP26. The used knowledge has to go!
