The Competitiveness of Nations

in a Global Knowledge-Based Economy

August  2003

WIP Page

Harry Hillman Chartrand

Tooled Knowledge: The Animation of Nature

 

Table of Contents

Abstract

1.0 Introduction                                               1

Endnotes                                          3

2.0 Forms & Types                                         4

a) Hard-Tooled                                          4

i) Sensors                                            5

ii) Tools                                               6

iii) Toys                                               8

b) Soft-Tooled                                          10

i) Mathematics                                     11

ii) Standards                                         13

iii) Techniques                                     15

Endnotes                                         16

3.0 Nature                                                        20

a) Design                                                    20

b) Density                                                  23

c) Fixation                                                  24

d) Vintage                                                  25

Endnotes                                         26

4.0 Sources                                                      29

a) The Crafts                                              30

b) Science                                                   31

c) Technology                                           31

d) Engineering                                           32

e) The University                                      33

Endnotes                                          34

5.0 Cultural Path Dependency                      35

a) Hypotheses                                            35

i) Zilsel (1945)                                        36

ii) Merton (1938)                                   37

iii) David (1998)                                     38

iv) Jacob (1980)                                     38

v) Houghton (1941)                              39

vi) Kuhn (1962)                                     40

vii) Wiener (1981)                                 40

b) Interpretation                                         41

Endnotes                                          43

6.0 Conclusions                                              44

7.0 References                                                 46

 

Abstract

It should prove historically ironic that the ‘tool making’ animal – humanity – entered its 21st century global knowledge-based economy without ‘tooled knowledge’ in its economic epistemology, i.e., its economic theory of knowledge.  Tooled knowledge, as sensor has extended the human senses far beyond our natural endowment;  as tool, it has extended the human grasp into the darkness of space, the depths of the oceans and to the genetic fabric whose warp and weave dresses humankind’s consciousness; and, as toy, it has extended the human playpen to the globe and beyond.  

Tooled knowledge is like tacit  knowledge (personal and somatic) in that it has purpose and is an existential extension of our self.  It is like codified knowledge in that it is extrasomatic, fixed in a material matrix other than our physical self and has vintage.  Unlike the analytic and reductive knowledge of the natural sciences, it is the result of design through synthesis of different domains and forms of knowledge.  It has density: the more knowledge tooled into a functional material matrix, the more operationally opaque it becomes approaching, at the limit, the user-friendly ‘black box’. 

In spite of its pervasive presence and impact, tooled knowledge, has remained below the analytic radar not just of economics, but also of the history, philosophy and sociology of science and technology.  A paradox results: the experimental instrumental sciences have risen to cultural ascendancy paralleled by the continuing epistemological subordination of tooled knowledge except within the natural sciences themselves.