This is uploaded from a late-night note in early 2023 from before this website in its current form existed - but it feels relevant to share now (late 2025). My convictions in this text still hold true, however, I see the fault in thinking that we can ever fully capture and transfer knowledge without loss, for loss in itself is knowledge.
Knowledge is an interesting concept. Ever since the earliest of days, our species have relied on some form of knowledge transfer to continue to their existence.
In the beginning, it was oral traditions, folklore, and stories of kinds. Over the years and through the people, these stories and traditions have evolved or got lost. Those that evolved were the ones we were able to make sense of within our contexts and environments at the time. The ones that got lost were either not relevant anymore or were too complex to be passed on effectively.
Through progress, we moved onto the written form. It preserved the words, but not necessarily the context or the knowledge. In non-didactic forms, the knowledge transfer was still lossy, for what was written rarely ever the full picture of the knowledge that was to be transferred. The written form did help in preserving knowledge better than oral traditions, but it was still not perfect.
Over time, we developed more structured ways of transferring knowledge - books, articles, papers, and later on, digital forms like blogs, videos, and podcasts. Alas, even with these advancements, we have simply enriched what I like to call the “created” form.
The “created” form is the one that is created for the purpose of transferring knowledge. It is often a simplified version of the original knowledge, tailored to the audience’s understanding and context. The biggest pitfall that it introduces is the preconditioning that the author itself is not aware of.
It wouldn’t be too large a claim to say that we are simply not capable of accessing the full breadth of knowledge contained within our information processing systems (brains) to be able to transfer it in its entirety. The links within blobs of information are often lost as we try and decipher and transfer them from one brain to another.
Our rich, audio-visually enhanced documents, in my opinion, are nothing but a larger context means of transferring the same “created” form of knowledge. They are still lossy, and they still suffer from the same preconditioning problem wherein the author is not aware of all the links and contexts that they themselves have.
Now, as we reach the age of AI, I am slightly disappointed to see us spending the vast resources at our disposal in making the transfer and management of the “created” form more efficient. It is a worthy pursuit, for it enhances our ability to share and access knowledge - but it is nowhere near the potential that we could be reaching for.
I do find that our current means of knowledge transfer is the single biggest bottleneck in our progress as a species.
- Internet made knowledge accessible to those who looked for it.
- Search engines made it findable.
- Social media made it shareable.
- AI is making it contextual.
Yet they are all limited in their bandwidth of device-to-brain. The “created” form is still the main medium of transfer.
I believe that the next frontier is to be able to transfer knowledge in its more raw form. The form that is closer to the original knowledge, with less loss and preconditioning. The form that is more aligned with the way our brains process and store information, without the need for translation into a “created” form.
I don’t precisely know what that form is yet, but I believe it is out there. It could be a new technology, a new medium, or a new way of thinking. It could be something that we haven’t even imagined yet.
I envision it as a standardized knowledge format. A format, quantum in its essence, that need not be known in its contents or entirety but rather in its existence and structure for it to be useful. A format that can be easily transferred, stored, and accessed by any brain, without the need for translation or interpretation - neither to a language nor a medium. A format that forms links in any brain that accesses it, without the need for the author to be aware of them.
Those who achieve this will be the ones who will unlock the next level of progress for our species. I’d chronologically expect them to:
- 1) Be companies providing shared contextual artificial knowledge processors (in post-AGI era), that conduct the aforementioned process intercomputerly, and converting to “created” form as needed for human consumption. This is a natural extension of what LLMs are doing today, and is the decade-long bet of “thinking machines”.
- 2) Be companies providing direct brain interfaces that can read and write this standardized knowledge format directly to and from the brain. This is a more distant bet, but one that I believe is inevitable. What Neuralink and its contemporaries are doing today is a step in this direction.
- 3) Be individuals of native-born knowledge processors, who can access and share this standardized knowledge format directly from their brains without post-processing. This is the most distant bet, but one that I’d foresee human evolution leading to with genetic engineering and other advancements far beyond my lifespan as expected today.
Any step in this direction will be one I will drop everything to be a part of.
Until then, I will continue to consume and create the “created” form of knowledge, while dreaming of the day when we can transcend it.