The most fundamental quality of man is that he acts. He employs means of the attainment of ends. He has goals he wishes to achieve, and works to achieve those goals. However, action never takes place in a vacuum. In order for man to act, he must have knowledge. For him to be able to correctly appraise which means should be utilized to attain his desired end, he must have knowledge about both the means and the end. In order to correctly employ his means, he must have gleaned information about them. In order for him to attain his end, he must have a clear picture of what his desired end looks like. Action itself does not depend on the existence of knowledge, but successful action does.
In this way, knowledge becomes valued by individuals for the services that it provides. It is an economic good that is valued according to its perceived benefits by its users. Similar to any other good, some individuals place a high value on acquiring knowledge, while others place a lower value on it. Just as not all goods are the same, not all knowledge is the same. Different individuals will value acquiring certain kinds of knowledge over others.
In the form of schooling and education, knowledge is sold on the market. Like other goods, acquiring it will have a market price, dictated by the valuations of consumers. If individuals value knowledge more highly, the cost of education will increase. If they value it lower, it will decrease. This dynamic is also reflected in the demand for other goods that primarily transmit knowledge, such as books and magazines.
In spite of the similarities that knowledge has to normal economic goods, knowledge has several peculiar qualities to it that make it remarkably distinct from anything else in mankind’s experience. In relation to all other facets of the human condition, knowledge is totally and radically unique.
First, knowledge can be used an infinite number of times without any depreciation or loss in value. No matter how many times I recall that World War 2 began on September 1, 1939, that piece of knowledge is not diminished in any way. It is as useful to me the first time I utilize it as the millionth time I utilize it. Durable producer’s goods can be used over and over again in the creation of consumer’s goods, but eventually these durable goods lose their durability and break down. They depreciate and lose their value. Knowledge does not suffer from these problems at all.
Secondly, knowledge can be endlessly replicated. Once I have knowledge, I can spread it to as many people as I wish without any loss in my original knowledge. No matter how many people I tell World War 2 started on September 1, 1939, my knowledge of it stays the same. Of course, this rule applies to knowledge that I spread to others as well; their knowledge that I spread to them is not deteriorated by its replication either. Theoretically, a piece of knowledge could be spread to all of humanity through replicating it over and over.
Thirdly, knowledge has no limit on the number of users it may have at any given time. My knowing and utilizing the fact that World War 2 began on September 1, 1939, does not in any way prohibit someone else from also employing that piece of knowledge. My utilization of it does not interfere with your utilization of it in any way. Similar to the oxygen we all breath, it can be used equally by all without any need for rationing.
These attributes of knowledge paint a fascinating picture. Knowledge seems to have a fascinating series of infinities: Knowledge is infinitely useful, as it does not deteriorate. Knowledge is infinitely replicable, as it can be reproduced without any loss to the original. Knowledge is also infinitely non-exclusive, as anyone’s usage of it does not prohibit its usage by anyone else.
These three qualities stand in glaringly stark contrast to other aspects of human experience. For example, material objects are strikingly different than knowledge. Material objects can be defined as anything existing in the corporeal world that can be observed through the senses. Expressed in more scientific terms, whatever has matter is a material object. A television set, book, chair, and even our own bodies, are all material objects. In comparison to the apparent infinities of knowledge, the material world seems starkly finite.
Material objects inevitably wear down over time. For some objects, such as a sandwich, their wearing-down process is an inseparable part of their usage. Once I have eaten a sandwich, there is no way for me to eat it again. In this way, the sandwich is completely “used-up” in the process of eating it. For other goods, they deteriorate and lose their usefulness over time. Durable objects like houses take years to lose all of their usefulness. Nevertheless, regardless of the object, it will eventually wear down and become useless to us. Knowledge, however, does not suffer from this problem at all. Even while the engine in a car slowly breaks down over time, the knowledge of how to build an engine never breaks down. That knowledge is as useful today as it will be in 100 years, long after the engine that knowledge produces is gone.
Material objects cannot be duplicated in the way knowledge can. One can assemble together a series of machines and tools into a production line whose purpose is to create even more machines and tools. However, this process will invariably require inputs in order to keep up a steady flow of production. Raw materials will need to constantly be fed into the tools and machines to keep a steady output. Knowledge does not require any inputs, however. A transfer of knowledge requires nothing other than the knowledge itself. Unlike a production line, it is completely self-duplicating.
Material objects are necessarily limited in their usage. If I am driving my car around town, it is plainly obvious that no one else can also drive that same car at the same time. My action of driving my car excludes anyone else from driving my car. There are other material objects that may be enjoyed by many people at once. For example, if a movie is projected onto a wall, many people can watch the movie at once. Even so, the number of people you could fit around the movie projection is still finite; even if a large crowd could all watch it, there is still a limit on the number of people in that crowd.
Knowledge does not suffer from this problem of exclusivity. The same piece of knowledge can be used by any number of people simultaneously. Just because I am using a piece of knowledge does not in any way exclude you from also using it. Hypothetically, this situation could be extrapolated out to all of humanity. Everyone in the world could be using the same of piece of knowledge all in concert without anyone’s use of that knowledge being frustrated by someone else’s usage of it.
Given all of these qualities, knowledge appears completely unique in the human experience. Nothing else that we can experience resembles it in any way whatsoever. Its special qualities are held by itself and itself only. However, all of its differentiating qualities point decisively in one direction: they point away from limitation. Whereas our lives are constantly filled with restrictions and barriers, knowledge is seemingly free from these inhibitions. The material objects we examined above are very finite. Their limits are expressed and defined. Knowledge is not quite infinite, but it does seem remarkably free of our mundane limits and restrictions. The usual boundaries of the outside world do not seem at all to apply to knowledge in any way. In sharp contrast to the material world, knowledge can be used an infinite number of times by and infinite number of people and reproduced an infinite number of times. The material world seems unbearable constrained and limited in comparison.
As fantastically amazing as knowledge is, it ultimately shines light on what makes knowledge possible: the human mind. Knowledge is not something that exists in the outside world. You can’t bump into knowledge while walking down the street. It is solely a product of the human mind, created as it surveys and takes note of the world around it. By extension, if knowledge possesses the qualities that we enumerated above, and the human mind is the originator of knowledge, then all of the astonishing qualities of knowledge are ultimately qualities of the human mind. All of the boundary-breaking aspects of knowledge are not attributes it possesses in itself, but rather, an extension of the rationality and imaginative will of our own minds.
Generally speaking, we are very well acquainted with our minds. We experience the world through them, and in fact, cannot do it any other way. All of our lived experience, thoughts, deductions, and reasoning are all the products of our individual psyche. It is because of this familiarity that we so often fail to appreciate the miracle that our minds are. The boundless nature of our thought, embodied in our knowledge, is rarely recognized for the novelty that it is. Far more than anything else, it is our minds that have allowed for mankind to be so successful. Our ability to conquer nature, to conquer other species, to even conquer our moon, are only possible because of this special gift. If we are to progress as a species, and even more importantly, as individuals, it will only be a product of the strengthening and utilization of the human mind.
The human mind is not infinite. It cannot grasp and examine all that there is and ever will be. It is limited in its faculties and functions. However, as we have shown above, parts of it do seem to resemble infinity in some way. The human mind seems to be some sort of restrained infinity. A Pocket Infinity, perhaps. Our potential is never quite infinite. We will always be constrained within some kind of limits. Even so, the human mind has already broken many of the otherwise universal restraints of the material world. Who knows how many more rules there are to be broken?
