Unravelling the DNA of knowlege

Paideusis
Journal for Interdisciplinary and Cross-Cultural Studies

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Unravelling the DNA of knowlege:
Building regional future memory in the Pacific through deconstructing the past

'Alopi Sione Latukefu
Department of Sociology
University of New South Wales
Sydney, New South Wales Australia
E-mail: alatukefu@hotmail.com

Abstract
In order to conceptualise our understanding of knowledge within the conceptual construct of the global knowledge-economy, we must try and break free of the restrictions, perceptions and social attitudes endowed by Social Darwinism and dialectical traditions. At the same time, to understand our current knowledge base and the system within which it exists it is important to look for 'metaphors' which appropriately describe it in a 'current context' - thus the correlation to DNA. This paper attempts to put forward an alternative view of knowledge for the Pacific, where knowledge is no longer restricted to a linear progression to enlightenment or dominated by European intellectual traditions - but rather, exists as a complex system of integrated historic and sychronic understanding (including European traditions), linked into a knowledge base which accommodates the greater systems of knowledge that exist in both tacit and codified form and the environment within which such systems have emerged. Adopting such understanding will hopefully allow for the future build-out of strong and sustainable knowledge-based economies in the Pacific alongside the technological infrastructure.

Key words: Pacific, knowledge, history, DNA, systems.

Having been involved in the first of a series of studies undertaken by the World Bank into knowledge assessment and the emergence of knowledge based economies in the Pacific - I am struck by the interpretation of the World Bank and other organisations - as to what essentially defines a knowledge economy. The catalyst to these discussions has been the ubiquitous uptake of TCP/IP 1 internetworking protocols as the default platform to sharing information and knowledge through the internet and other communications mediums. The main thrust of this emerging paradigm, being to base the future development of nations in the Pacific on an 'information' based economy as opposed to industrialised one. Is this a shortsighted perspective of what the convergence of technology and society actually means to people in the Pacific? What is the real impact of the convergence of history and technology within a 'knowledge based economy'? What does the emergence of information intranational and international systems of government, business and community (at least in cyberspace) mean to the Pacific? How does the emergence of more open systems of knowledge undermine the historic colonial hegemons of both knowledge and identity that have dominated Pacific Island thinking over the past two centuries? What lessons can be learnt (or as the case may be re-learnt) to secure the sustainability of not only our environments but also the societies we live in?

The rise of the so-called information age and the accelerating spread of information and communications technology has brought on the one hand a sense of fear of the unknown but on the other hand a myriad of new opportunities for Pacific peoples. At this stage the Pacific region faces the question of how it can successfully take full advantage of what the information revolution has to offer, without having to compromise existing social and cultural values. It has become increasingly evident that the norms and values by which Pacific islanders have defined themselves over the past 200 years are in conflict with the global context in which we are all now expected to live. We are exhorted to move as rapidly as possible into the global information/knowledge economy and assured that this will lead to a kind of "globalised utopia". There is still a tendency however, to adopt 19th century assumptions of societal evolution and to suggest that Pacific societies can leap straight from an agricultural to an information based society. This idea of linear progression has not only dominated our approach to understanding Pacific societies but also to the way in which we perceive knowledge in the region.

Today I would like to address three major themes:

Lessons from the past: Messages for the future
The concept of ‘future’ memory
The concept of a ‘DNA’ of knowledge

At this time I would like to acknowledge previous work by the likes of Gregory Bateson (1972), Claude Lévi-Strauss , Ludwig Von Bertalannfy , Norbert Wiener and more recently Thomas Davenport to name a few - in establishing earlier dialogues around the relationships between networks, people, technology and information.

Lessons from the Past, Messages for the Future

What do we mean by ‘knowledge’? Sir Francis Bacon was famous for his maxim that knowledge is power . Historians are well aware of this relationship - and are often key participants in establishing and in many cases consolidating the relationship into the knowledge base of their subject. In the Pacific as in most other parts of the world subject to colonisation - this statement has a powerful resonance. Knowledge, has been monopolised by those in power, and remains today - dominated by the historic, deterministic elements of the past few centuries. In the Pacific's most recent history, unless synthesised or assimilated into the knowledge power base of the hegemonic power in the region - traditional knowledge and tacit understanding of the social, economic, physical and political environment was deemed ‘primitive’ or ‘empirically unsubstantiable’ when judged by the traditions of empirical science and codified knowledge. This is a dangerous mindset for the Pacific and in fact any group to take into the next millennium. One only has to look to the environmental, political, and economic challenges many of the current Pacific states face - in the words of one writer 'a nightmare scenario' - to gain a feeling for the system of knowledge which is pervasive. The same principles apply to traditional societies and their own knowledge base. In order to cope effectively with the challenges thrown up by interactions with other economic, social, political, biological and technological systems through migration and integration into the world economy - traditional societies must be open in their own approach to knowledge. From a social policy perspective - a good example of this is how traditional systems are coping with the rise of youth suicide, crime and brain drain - all of which are attributable in some ways to the opening up of relatively closed systems of knowledge in these societies.

TCP/IP protocols have had a huge effect on the way in which the Pacific and the world as a whole, communicates information and develops its knowledge base. The Internet protocols have created a space in which all information can be held in the same medium and at the same time allows populations the benefit of interactive feedback mechanisms to that knowledge. These throw up enormous challenges and at the same time opportunities for Pacific communities to reconcile their knowledge base and at the same time create a robust system of knowledge management in the technology enabled information economies that are emerging in the region. The convergence of informational organisations and individuals onto a single platform has considerable implications for the way in which populations of the Pacific interact with themselves and with other societies around the world. Governments in the region as with all countries making the shift to an information based economy/society, are in a position to converge the services offered by government, with those of business and community groups. At the same time there is an opportunity to build information architecture that allows feedback loops with the populations to whom information is disseminated - which in the past was very difficult to achieve with the existing technologies and forms of communications. The Internet offers access to an ecology of information previously inaccessible to most groups without enormous expense - while at the same allowing for the preservation and dissemination of previously fragile knowledge bases which had been under threat of disappearing (particularly oral histories and traditions).

One of the key lessons from the past is the way in which the Pacific as a region exists as small populations living on such fragile ecologies, whose survival for thousands of years was determined by:

The links and co-operation (even though this may have been at times through coercion) to different knowledge bases both intra-regionally and inter-regionally. In particular the tacit links, which were built over the millennia through trade and interaction - explicitly demonstrated through the spread of ancient technologies like lapita pottery.
An understanding of the environmental impact of overuse of natural resources and the need to replenish the stocks available (lessons which are found in the oral traditions and traditional practices of many Pacific Island nations).
The importance of the kinship or status groups rather than individuals as the key political units in traditional societies.

Those who have sought to introduce modern economic and political institutions often neglect to appreciate the strength and continuing influence of the traditional systems of knowledge in the region. However, the thirst for modern communications technology has seen strong and rapid uptake of innovations such as the cable and wireless, telephony, satellite communications, facsimile and the internet by both internal and overseas Pacific communities. Given the geographical isolation and small populations of these islands, previous flows of information were dependent on shipping and in extremes case - floating tin cans. While transport innovations made the flow of information more efficient, the measure of distance was as much a measure of cost as time in the Pacific. Telephony while closing the time divide did not effectively tackle cost considerations - the internet has had the impact of shrinking the distance in cost and time to a nominal figure - the distance from a remote island to an metropolitan centre anywhere in the world is now only a mouse-click away. Nowadays people are communicating through the internet to maintain links for important social purposes such as marriage, funerals and other traditional reasons. As well the internet is becoming an increasingly important channel to knowledge which in the past would have only been accessible through expensive and often unrewarding overseas training (given the numbers who stay overseas). At the same time the internet allows countries in the Pacific to tap the global information/ knowledge community as well as their own greater diasporic community's knowledge base which in the past had been either totally inaccessible or extremely expensive to recapture, as well as providing a feedback process which allows these populations access to their culture and traditional knowledge base. In a sense the term 'brain-drain' may in future be a misnomer (particularly if we accept the idea of a global knowledge economy). In this sense, the technology and information infrastructure (including human resources) involved in building the internet out in the Pacific must be strategic priorities for all countries in the region and high on the agenda of donor organisations, if the Pacific is to take full advantage into the next millenium.

Future Memory

'Future memory' was a term coined by Swedish neurobiologist David Ingvar. Pierre Wack, Peter Schwartz and other researchers in the Royal Dutch Shell Company further developed it as a concept in their research into scenario planning. A quote from Peter Schwartz's book 'The Art of Long View' (1995) gives an indication to what is behind the process:

People have an innate ability to build scenarios, and to foresee the future. This has been suggested in the work of two well-respected neurobiologists, Dr. William Calvin and Dr. David Ingvar. According to their theories, our drive to tell ourselves stories about the future may well be "hardwired" into the human brain - closely linked to our abilities to speak and construct language. Planning ahead in other animals is a hormonal process, in which hoarding behaviours are triggered by, for example, shortening daylight hours. But we humans are capable of planning decades ahead, able to take account of extraordinary contingencies far more irregular than the seasons. Future memory allows human groups and individuals to build scenarios in their minds when faced with a challenge or decision, to which they need to respond. The challenge for those working on the future memory project at Shell was to develop ways in which the benefits of future memory could be extended to organisations. This was achieved by collating tacit and codified knowledge within organisations and building scenarios or stories, which offer possible alternatives, or 'future memories' which can be employed as paths if faced with the challenges which were built into the scenarios. These were not however prescriptions, but rather, like the individual human response of 'future memory', a way in which to build the information and knowledge base to cope with change. While not a new idea, the challenge for the Pacific and other knowledge economies is to extend these principles to our own regions, environments and populations as a whole.

The DNA of Knowledge

To explain the meaning of a DNA of knowledge, I must first refer to the synchronic and diachronic approaches to knowledge in western science, which have been built on two major dynamics:

The endeavour to understand phenomena in the world through rigorous, scientific analysis.
The reification of these findings into concrete ‘laws’ of science - eg the laws thermodynamics.

The very language used in science, is filled with implicit assumptions of control and progress, in particular the word 'law'. Law implies a notion of control - that somehow by understanding and developing theory on how the world works - we as scientific beings have been blessed with the ability to 'control' that environment in which phenomena exists - since we understand and imbue the phenomena with a 'law'.

Western science has adopted a linear perception of knowledge in both synchronic and diachronic terms. The influence of this can be seen in the development of the information value progression or chain .

The Alpha to Omega group in the UK presents a useful analysis of the information value chain. Within the value progression of information, lie five major forms of what could loosely be classified as a 'knowledge economy'.

These five progressions are classified as:

Data;
Information;
Knowledge;
Understanding; and
Wisdom.

Each of these progressions requires a catalytic process to move from one progression to another. In the case of this model:

Data is ordered to produce Information
Information has external context applied to it to provide Knowledge
Provision of external knowledge to your Knowledge provides a path to Understanding
Wisdom is the ability to benefit from Understanding through subjective processes.

While conceptually useful in linking information to other 'value chains' - particularly in the economic process - this synchronic model for understanding knowledge is limited by its linearity. The linear progression forces compliance to the current system of knowledge as opposed to an understanding of the greater system or ecology of knowledge.

Human knowledge, from the still influential perspective of 19^th century social Darwinism follows a definitive linear progression usually from a series of stages ranging from Hunting and gathering through agricultural and industrial periods up to the present knowledge period.

Yet is this analysis appropriate for the Pacific at this time? In order to gain an understanding of knowledge, it is perhaps helpful to think in terms of metaphors which are linked to our conceptual understanding of the world at this time. As with nominalism, knowledge in the twentieth century only exists once it has become accepted within the contextual and conceptual frameworks of human thinking. Given the ideas which have emerged over the last fifty years in biological and systems analysis, the metaphor of DNA for knowledge 2 may be more appropriate than the linear model previously outlined

While I cannot claim any expert knowledge of DNA and it's complexity - as a structure it provides a powerful analogy to knowledge. If we take the concept of the 'value chain', and think of each of the elements as nucleotides, and the chain as a whole as a polynucleotide - this seems a more applicable metaphor for knowledge, than the simple idea of value chains. If we accept that 'wisdom' in each of the value chains is 'wisdom of the age' - each strand of 'information value chains' is a continuous spiral of knowledge, which links, from one to another over time.

Each of these strands are also not limited to their own 'value chains' but can split and create new ideas at each intersection, and at the same time have fed into them 'knowledge' from other strands of the knowledge DNA. However, these 'information value chains' are linked intrinsically to each other through time and space - without necessarily being linear, or having historic or binary distinctions between each of the spirals. The knowledge DNA is also inclusive of traditional and tacit knowledge chains, which in the past would not have been considered as part of the 'linearly-progressing' knowledge economy. In thinking of a 'knowledge' economy - the construct of the DNA also allows us to have a more open approach to knowledge and at the same time opportunities to develop sustainable approaches to managing (which I would argue differs from controlling) the knowledge economies of the Pacific as well as the world in general.

The DNA analogy opens the system of knowledge in the Pacific - to allow for the greater integration and at the same time differentiation, that is possible in technology enabled knowledge based economies. While perhaps not as politically powerful as historic linear systems, the DNA approach allows us insight into the workings of knowledge. At the same time it provides a model which we can use to 'pick apart' and study (as in genetics) each of the 'bits' that make it up, with an awareness of their place in the greater information ecology within which they exist. Understanding the knowledge DNA will allow the Pacific to build information architecture, which is appropriate to the needs of its populations. At the same time creating links both within and outside of the region to capture the tacit knowledge, which exists within the region, would help in many ways to avoid the 'informational' problems of the past. Learning from this model will allow the Pacific as with all knowledge economies to take full advantage of mechanisms such as future memory - to find applications for the greater knowledge economy which the internet and TCP/IP protocols have created.

References

Bateson, G. (1972). Steps to an ecology of mind; collected essays in anthropology, psychiatry, evolution, and epistemology. San Francisco, Chandler Pub. Co.

Bertalanffy, L. v. (1971). General system theory : foundations, development, applications. London, Allen Lane.

Blattberg, R. C., R. Glazer, et al. (1994). The Marketing information revolution. Boston, Mass., Harvard Business School Press.

Davenport, T. H. and L. Prusak (1997). Information ecology : mastering the information and knowledge environment. New York, Oxford University Press.

Horton, A. H. (1997). 'Understanding the Information Economy: The Information Value Progression' Alpha to Omega Ltd. http://www.alphaomega.demon.co.uk/paper2.html

Lévi-Strauss, C. (1972). The savage mind. London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

Partington, A. (1996). The Oxford dictionary of quotations. Oxford ; New York, Oxford University Press.

Savage, C. M. (1996). Fifth generation management : co-creating through virtual enterprising, dynamic teaming, and knowledge networking. Boston, Butterworth-Heinemann.

Schwartz, P. (1995). The art of the long view : planning for the future in an uncertain world. New York, Currency Doubleday.

Wiener, N. (1950). Human use of human beings. New York, Macmillan Company.

Notes

1 TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol): - The Internet is the result of networking thousands of computers around the world. In order to make this possible it was important to have a standard way to transmit data from one computer to another, and one which would be accepted by all operating systems and hardware as a standard. Many different 'standards' were put forward, but ultimately it was the simple and robust packet switching protocols developed by the Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) for their own proprietary network (ARPANET) which was eventually accepted as the standard - and is referred to as the Internet. TCP/IP is a two tiered protocol (as it names suggests), with one protocol used to transmit data in a standard manner and defining where to send it (IP), with the other acting as a monitor, keeping track of the data's integrity as it is passed from one computer to another through telephone lines or other communications infrastructure and if need be sending packets (of data) again if corrupted by the means of transmission (TCP). (Hunt C., 1998, TCP/IP Network Administration, O'Reilly& Associates, Cambridge.)
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2 Knowledge as with all 'systems' can be viewed as 'closed' or 'open'. Systems of knowledge are not 'concrete', but rather constructs which we develop to make sense of the environment in which we exist. In constructing these systems we can therefore choose to take a closed system approach which restricts and binds the system we construct through the establishment of 'parameters'. These parameters are generally accepted as legitimate means to building understanding of phenomena. Closed systems tend to therefore establish binary oppositions between what are internal versus external factors to the system. These parameters can include time and spatial factors as well as physical ones. Alternatively we can choose to take a more open approach to systems - which is sometimes referred to as an ecological approach. I would argue that a DNA metaphor is on this tract.
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