Comment by stephc_int13
1 day ago
Fully agree and this something I only fully realised quite late in life.
One of the implications is that at any given point in time, the vast majority of human knowledge is living in people's brains and cannot be stored. The seemingly ineluctable and almost mechanical progression of technology is happening on a thin margin between generational losses.
Maybe not so thin: much humans' knowledge is embedded in things we create (outside of language).
For example the design of a machine may have it tolerate inputs way outside spec & work fine. It may be built to take a beating, while no manual mentions using it in a rough environment. There may be subtle or not-so-subtle tweaks done to it over the years.
So that machine embodies knowledge, that may be 're-discovered' (by observing machine in action) long after its original designer is gone.
Another example: the design of traffic systems, the layout of cities (mostly organic growth), and how it affects the flow of people & goods through that city.
That's just a few examples. In short: knowledge is stored in other ways besides books/videos etc, or people's heads.