Some Thoughts on The Perception of Culture and the New Interpretive Frontier of the Knowledge Revolution

Two articles that have influenced my thinking since my previous blog entries are “Cyberspace & the American Dream” and “Does Your Knowledge Affect My Thinking?” What I experienced reading them is a sense that there is a new interpretive frontier for understanding the meaning, perception and definition of culture in the age of the “knowledge revolution”.

Right away an important thought struck me immediately as it jumped off the page of the “Cyberspace & the American Dream” article: “The central event of the 20th century is the overthrow of matter. … The powers of mind are everywhere ascendant over the brute force of things.” (Dyson et al, p.295) I find this “ascendant” aspect very inspiring and I relate it to the idea of the birth of ideas, cultures and counter-culture, etc. Most of all I see it as a unifying force for looking at human kind overall as perceived by cultures to other cultures and individuals to individuals.

Pondering how “the knowledge revolution, and the Third Wave of historical change it powers, summon us to renew the dream and enhance the promise.” (Dyson et al, p.296) I started to wonder what is the dream of what knowledge can accomplish? Where can it take a person? It seems so infinite and so much like and attuned to the concept of “cyberspace”. And here it is expressed: Cyberspace is “ … inhabited by knowledge… connected to the physical environment by portals, …” (Dyson, et al, p.296). Fortunately for everyone the infinite has real footholds in our physical reality.

In addition, what attracts me so much is the potential of what knowledge can produce are the really succinct explanations of culture now being delivered in cyberspace. What stands out to me especially is how knowledge is the great unifying theme and its power, when coupled with cyberspace can embrace something so large as the definition of a culture as a whole entity and actually make it seem potentially understandable and within one’s grasp to know. Next, I find these ideas connect to the “Does Your Knowledge Affect My Thinking?” article because it relates and describes how there is a fundamental need for the use of schemas by the individual. As I see it, to understand the great universe of knowledge one must depend on schemas: “A schema is an abstract cognitive structure that results when one assimilates new information and prior knowledge (Pratt, Krane & Kendall, 1981)” (Goldstein, p.1). “Because we cannot retain all the information we confront, we engage in a comprehension process aimed at broader comprehension (Bartlett, 1932) (Goldstein, p.1).”

As expressed in the “Cyberspace & the American Dream” article, The Third Wave economy and the knowledge revolution are so powerful that these forces demand that those who populate it are equipped to handle the ride. Let’s face it: in order to survive and thrive we need coping mechanisms. Because ”each person has different prior experiences that result in a unique set of beliefs, perceptions and expectations, … people will vary in terms of what … they remember and …understand…” (Goldstein, p.1) schemas help us navigate: “when a person confronts new information, relevant schemas may be activated.” (Goldstein, p.1) With such a survival skill (one among many that are required) one can more likely function and cope with the huge new cultural forces of the Third Wave.

There are tremendous cultural changes occurring and the implications of living in this age are confusing to say the least. Of these implications we find that “Turning the economics of mass-production inside out, new information technologies are driving the financial costs of diversity – both product and personal – down toward zero, “demassifying” our institutions and our culture. Accelerating demassification creates the potential for vastly increased human freedom.” (Dyson, et al, p.297)

This freedom is a vital new energizing power and it has changed cultures across the globe, each with a different interpretation and explanation of the nature of its own culture. This suggests an even greater implication. The “rising Third Wave constituency is highly diverse… composed of individuals who prize their differences” (Dyson, et al, p.308) suggest these differences pose tremendous perceptual challenges for us humans to comprehend each other. So, with this in mind, I find it fascinating to consider “whether exposure to the background knowledge of a communication partner may influence an individual’s own schema activation and comprehension (Goldstein, p.11). It really intrigues me to think that if we are to truly know another culture it comes down to the nature of a long series of one-to-one interactions and the sharing of what we know and how we know it and the essence of continuous schema exchanges.

Goldstein, M., (2006) Does Your Knowledge Affect My Thinking?” (p. 1-17)
Dyson, E. et al (1995) “Cyberspace & the American Dream”(p.295-308)