Some attempts at philosophy of a morning.

If "knowledge is power" then we have to have an understanding of what it means to "know" something. Having data is not enough. Being able to assess that data, make accurate assumptions based upon that data, and even to manipulate that data or how it is seen by others will open the avenues to influence, and thereby, power. The individual will is crippled if that given individual is not free from the manipulation of data.

Presently, we are in an age of data proliferation. The communication of data far out-paces a given individual's capability to process and to "know". Power is reliant upon the biggest and best computer servers. The fuel to run these comes from conglomerates (governments, companies) who are in turn reliant upon the biggest and best computer servers, and those who run them. In this symbiotic relationship, power is balanced. As an aside, this is similar to the balance of church and state in the Western world's past. The physical limitations are now measured out less in human suffering (warfare, physical struggle, oppression) and more in the capacity of the planet to endure humanity en masse. But the old demons still abound.

As things are, security would appear to be of utmost importance. However, security is a limitation. Access is most important of all. Those who have access set the restrictions imposed by security. To be powerful is to have access. To have access requires a short-cut to the biggest and best computer servers and the data stored within, the capability to process this data, and the ability to use this knowledge to some end. Even if "all data" were attainable at a given time, knowledge is dependent upon an individual mind or will. Conglomerates are an attempt at creating an individual will in numbers. For example, a democratic government is elected by the majority of people who ostensibly share the same views and vote accordingly. Of course this is sloppy, but the point is to gain power by sharing the same individual will. The sloppiness that arises from attempting to focus a group of individual wills into one united conglomeration of shared knowledge as power can be quite ghastly. It can also help to serve the common good of a people. But knowledge remains strongly dependent upon the individual, and the knowledge of power itself the key to how an individual behaves.

Well, if you have read this far, you can recognize a struggling brain when you see one. Socrates, after all these thousands of years, was an original individual for stating "I know that I know nothing".

The next post will have to be the Alasdair Roberts follow-up.
Bye for now!