{"product_id":"knowing-what-we-know","title":"Knowing What We Know","description":"\u003ch3 data-start=\"561\" data-end=\"648\"\u003eSimon Winchester\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ch2 data-start=\"561\" data-end=\"648\"\u003eOur Take\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"561\" data-end=\"648\"\u003eA generous, winding history of how humans have gathered, organized, and transmitted knowledge. This is a book about books, libraries, teachers, encyclopedias, and the whole long project of not forgetting.\u003cstrong data-start=\"1709\" data-end=\"1723\"\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 data-start=\"1220\" data-end=\"1316\"\u003eTheir Take\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith the advent of the internet, any topic we want to know about is instantly available with the touch of a smartphone button. With so much knowledge at our fingertips, what is there left for our brains to do? At a time when core skills of learning and memory seem to be stripped of all value—no need for math, no need for map-reading, no need for memorization—are we risking our ability to think? In this modern information age, as we empty our minds, will we one day be incapable of thoughtfulness?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAddressing these questions, Simon Winchester explores the long history of knowledge and how humans have attained, stored, and disseminated it. Examining such disciplines as education, journalism, encyclopedia creation, museum curation, photography, and broadcasting, he looks at a whole range of knowledge diffusion—from the cuneiform writings of Babylon to the machine-made genius of artificial intelligence, by way of the printing press, Google, and Wikipedia to the huge Victorian assemblage of the Mundanaeum, the collection of everything ever known, currently stored in a damp basement in northern Belgium.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStudded with strange and fascinating details, \u003ci\u003eKnowing What We Know\u003c\/i\u003e is a deep dive into learning and the human mind. Throughout this fascinating tour, Winchester forces us to ponder the crucial distinction between information vs. wisdom. What good is all this knowledge if it leads to lack of thought? What is information without wisdom? Does Rene Descartes’s \u003ci\u003eCogito, ergo sum\u003c\/i\u003e—“I think therefore I am,” the foundation for human knowledge widely accepted since the Enlightenment—still hold?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e And what will the world be like if no one in it is wise?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cem data-sleek-node-id=\"3468aL\"\u003e- Their Take is the book description listed at Bookshop.org\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Table of Contents","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45067984273590,"sku":null,"price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0719\/4145\/6054\/files\/IMG_9247.jpg?v=1776809299","url":"https:\/\/thetableofcontents.shop\/products\/knowing-what-we-know","provider":"The Table of Contents Shop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}