KNOWLEDGE (Tacit infrastructure of)
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 1833 ▶ |
| Object type | Epistemology, ontology or semantics |
D. BÖHM and F.D. PEAT write: “Some of our most valuable skills exist in the form of… tacit infrastructure of knowledge. A child, for example, spends long hours with a bicycle before suddenly learning to ride. Yet, once the new skill is acquired, it never seems to be forgotten” (1987, p.20).
In other words, we acquire behavioral algorithms and mental autopoiesis, by back-propagation (i.e. automatic self correction), by automatic reinforcement of successful behavior or by normative feedback.
This is somehow recognized even by J.J. GIBSON, who writes: “Knowledge of the environment, surely, develops as perception develops, extends as the observers travel, gets finer as they know to scrutinize, gets longer as they apprehend more events, gets fuller as they see more objects, and gets rich as they notice more affordances” (1986, p.153).
In short, it becomes better as we enrich — and learn how to enrich — our sensorially obtained data. Knowledge becomes in this way a capacity for recognizing similarities with that which one is already equipped to recognize, and a capacity to blow up accordingly the autopoietic frames of reference from inside out.
See also
Knowledge (Implicit)