A scientist or researcher finds out about reality and what is true. Knowledge is advancing all the time, but the general public has difficulty in knowing how far we have progressed and what is true. New knowledge must be popularized, made public, accepted by the public and understood by the public to be of use.
Original knowledge is found all the time – it must be made public all the time.
The knowledge of the world is accumulating ever faster. We find out how things work and develop, we know about the details and the larger systems. Life sciences are growing fast so that we know more and more about networks, interconnectedness and holistic systems.
Genomics, metabolomics and all the other -omics are developing fast, nanotech is there, history is better understood, the understanding of the human brain is advancing, climate models are becoming more and more complete.
Researchers, technologists and experts of all kinds know their subjects fairly well, although incompletely. This knowledge must be made public in step with advancing knowledge.
This has traditionally been done through schools, books, the popular media.
A broad lack of understanding of new developments seems to be developing in society now – we don’t know what is going on any more – that is for the experts. Use of strategic information control to serve given interests are another dangerous factor. The politicians are like the general public – they follow the experts.
This must be changed. Knowledge must be popularized and spread more evenly or society will lose.
A big challenge is to make people interested in knowledge and able to understand it too. Societies will become unbalanced, undemocratic, ridden by special interests – lobbyists - if we do not achieve better knowledge distribution.
We need new ways in the form of new thinking and institutions to educate the general public. Public schools, universities can do it, good writers can do it. Intellectuals used to be important too – where have they gone?
Everyone of us must be looking for a solution for broad development and distribution of knowledge – it is deeply seen about making a good society for all, and necessary too. Knowledge must be understandable, distributed, transparent, with a known source, real. Enlightenment is what follows.