KNOWLEDGE
The following terms and their respective definitions describe knowledge as a relatively virtual phenomenon which emerges as a result of relatively physical processes occurring within the relatively physical hardware of an information processing agent and such that only that information processing agent experiences that instance of knowledge.
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SUBSTRATE: a physical medium (comprised of space, time, matter, and energy) which is structured in a particular configuration such that the physical medium contains and possibly transmits informational patterns.
PATTERN: a structure comprised of contrasting phenomena which is made knowable by being expressed through a substrate.
DATA: (singular: datum) a relatively simple and pattern (contained or transmitted via a substrate) which is used to assemble more complex forms of information (particularly in the format of logical associations between multiple discrete data).
An example of a datum is a sequence of eight binary digits (which is exactly one byte of information) such as 11001101.
INFORMATION: logical associations made by an information processing agent which contextualizes multiple discrete data as a single communicable mapping structure.
An example of a discrete piece of information is the mapping of the decimal number 205 to the binary number 11001101 by a digital electronic computer which translates binary “high voltage” and “low voltage” signals at the physical level to binary digits at a rudimentary abstract level and then to the decimal representation of that binary sequence at a more virtual level of abstraction.
Note that, in the context of this web page, the term abstract is used interchangeably with the term virtual.
KNOWLEDGE: an emergent property which occurs as a result of a sufficiently complex information processing agent subjectively interpreting some piece of information in a manner which makes the resulting subjective experience incommunicable beyond the confines of that particular unique instance of subjectivity.
It is implied that knowledge is a solipsistic phenomenon (which means that it is too abstract to replicate without destroying the essence of what that particular instance of knowledge is). It is also implied that what makes such (high-abstraction level) information solipsistic is that it is unique in terms of how it is instantiated in nature. It is unique in the sense that it is experienced exactly one time and by exactly one information processing agent.
According to the definitions presented in this web page, data is relatively low in abstraction level compared to information and information is relatively low in abstraction level compared to knowledge. In pseudocode that can be represented as follows:
abstraction_level(unprocessed_voltage_sequence) = 0. abstraction_level(data) = 1. // data could arise from a digital electronic computer translating incoming voltages as a binary digits abstraction_level(information) = 2. // information could arise from a digital electronic computer translating a sequence of binary digits into a video file abstraction_level(knowledge) = 3. // knowledge could arise from a sufficiently complex neural network processing a video file such that the neural network subjectively perceives a chronological sequence of images and sounds encoded by the video file
This web page was last updated on 09_JULY_2025. The content displayed on this web page is licensed as PUBLIC_DOMAIN intellectual property.