The Fifth Tributary — Knowledge, External Intelligence, and Information ManagementA quick review of this idea: First, our knowledge base is part of our intelligence — having ideas to think about, vocabulary to express the ideas, and facts to reason about all help us be functionally more intelligent. The quality of facts matters — some are trivial, some lead to and reflect deep understanding. Second, when there is information we can store or find, then evaluate and integrate to our internal knowledge base at the moment we need it, that information becomes part of our External Intelligence. Every publicly accessible bit of information in the world — words, images, data bits — is part of our potential External Intelligence. Picture the Europe of 1455 in which Johann Gutenberg printed his Bible. Only a fortunate few could obtain it or read the words printed in it. Only the wealthiest could afford hand-copied manuscripts. Everyone else had only very limited opportunities to supplement their personal internal intelligence — through chatting on the village square, talking to wise elders, or trading ideas with those they trusted. The idea of External Intelligence was a very limited concept. In the next four centuries, worldwide literacy slowly developed, and the quantity of written and pictorial material steadily increased. Still, in the frontier America of 150 years ago, the arrival of a weeks-old newspaper (you can think of it as a little packet of External Intelligence) was a major event for a small town. In the last half-century, the availability of information to supplement our External Intelligence, and the ease of access to it, has exploded. We’re so used to hearing phrases like “the Information Age” that we’re in danger of forgetting that this really is a fundamental change — quite possibly as important as the original invention of printing. The skills a young adult must have to survive are different than they were only yesterday. And the evidence is that the process will continue to accelerate: A higher and higher percentage of our intelligence will be housed outside our physical body. To even think of intelligence as something residing only inside our brain has become dangerously limiting. Potential External Intelligence may be more easily accessible than ever before, but that doesn’t mean things are easier — they’re actually far more demanding of young people. If we used to have a paucity of information, now we have a plethora. Take a second to remember yourself as a grade-school student. You’ve been told to write a paper about Brazil. It used to be that if you knew how to interpret a library card, you were all set. Can you remember that your main problem was to find a single book, or an encyclopedia article, or an old National Geographic? Excuse me now, while I switch to my favorite search engine... Yep, just as I suspected: when I enter “Brazil,” I find 1,216,860 references! I love it! Back in “my day,” kids could get by with very low-level skills. Once I found a source about Brazil, and a picture or two from that National Geographic, all I had to do was ask one question: “Where are the scissors?” Now I look at those 1, 216, 860 references and I ask: How can I do a more focused search? What do I really want to know? What kind of key words might get me there? Which of these sources is giving me reliable information? This tour company obviously wants me to buy a trip to Brazil, but can I still trust their map? Shall I bookmark this article and see what else I can find? Shall I print this map now while I screen some more articles? Shall I download this image to paste into my paper? Wouldn’t you rather see your child doing this kind of thinking instead of cutting up innocent magazines? But External Intelligence isn’t just about books and other sources of information. It’s about all the tools that extend our ability to grasp the world. Calendars, hand-held organizers, yellow stickies, journals, diaries, and napkins we use to write down a phone number all extend our grasp of the world. We go to the library, or we let our fingers do the walking through the yellow pages or the Web. When we use our TV well, we can be, although in a limited way, transported to another time or place, or to a world we are unlikely to ever see in person (for example, the surface of Mars). When we use a calculator, we augment our own math ability with an external aid. We may use a simple hand-held calculator to speed us through the drudgery of balancing the checkbook. But we may also use a computer to do math which, only a decade ago, was beyond any human’s ability. We are becoming bionic people, whose physical and mental limitations can be (in some ways) transcended by our technology. Perhaps you’ve already noticed that the questions our imaginary child is asking about her Brazil search have strong ties to the Director? Sometimes when we think about knowledge and facts, we picture something rather dead — “Dry as old bones.” But the effective use of all today and tomorrow’s sources of External Intelligence is all about dynamic management. It will require flexible strategies, good thinking, and excellent logistics (“Where did I put that folder...?”). It will both engender and require more capable children. On our map, this is a reservoir of additional "flow," always available for our river. So the last tributary of the Intelligence River flows into the main current. All the parts are there, even though it will take a lifetime of exploration to know every bend of the way. The full map is on the next page. A Map of the Intelligence River |
