Knowledge generation has two new attributes: information metastasis[1] and chaos. This generating a global information certitude evanescence. We cannot justify nor generate all the knowledge we manage, so we trust -more than ever- others opinions (authorities: teachers, mass media, workmates, friends…). Moral: We use relational networks as knowledge + proofs warehouse. Karen Stephenson anticipated it: “I store my knowledge in my friends”[2].
We all know and believe propositions that we do not really have verified Ayer dixit [3]. We hand off the fundaments of our knowledge to reliable and acceptable sources. And this kind of reliable sources is in the essence of social relationships “the genesis of a network is formed by trust” [4]. But we should not exclude from this postmodernity scenario the possibility to conduct a check to validate what we are told if there are doubts about their exactness, completeness or consistency. We need to rely on certain people or media, but not blindly.
We have the right to check the validity of what we think.
I have serious doubts about something. Cool. How could I get validation? Well, there is no way. An inevitable consequence od chaos and information metastasis is unveiled. Sources of authority are fuzzy so individuals are not able to authenticate any piece of information. We lost certitude.
This lack of absolute certitude is substantive in technological post-modernity quotidian life. And it affects the trueness degree, the completeness or the coherence with the previously accepted assumptions. However fuzzy information and knowledge is not useless[5]. Fuzziness could be the new state of knowledge so the sooner we get custom, the better. Would you be surprised if you discover that zealots and absolute truths, that were in the basics of society building, have become dangerous threats?
Uncertainty areas are widening as Kruger[6] said. Bye-bye to comfortably lie over certitudes. Bye, information certitude! Hi, Knowledge Fuzziness.
There is no more magic, nor moral authority, nor certitude. A true missile.
[1] From Ramón Ignacio correa García “TICs entre el mesianismo y el prognatismo pedagógico” en (Aparici (Coord.), Conectados en el ciberespacio 2010)
[2] Karen Stephenson (Stephenson s.f.) citada en Siemens, Conectivismo: una teoría de aprendizaje para la era digital, cap5 de (Aparici (Coord.), Conectados en el Ciberespacio
[3] (Ayer, A.J. Lenguaje, verdad y lógica. Barcelona: Planeta-Agostini, 1986) Pág 38.
[5] “An incoherent system is necessarily unuseful? Not at all!” (Smullyan, Raymond. 5000 años AC y otras fantasías filosóficas. Madrid: Cátedra, 1989) Page 86
[6] Krüger, Karsten. “El concepto de sociedad del conocimiento.” Revista bibliográfica de geografía y ciencias sociales XI, no. 683 (10 2006): 14, página 7.