Creating a Knowledge Economy in the Age of Misinformation

I recently heard an interview with Steve Schwarzman, the Chairman and CEO of The Blackstone Group. If you don't know, Blackstone is a financial investment and buyout firm with total assets worth $439 billion dollars. Mr. Schwarzman has a personal net worth of $18.2 billion dollars. He is, to say the least, an extraordinarily successful man, and Blackstone is widely regarded as one of the best financial companies on the planet. In the interview, Schwarzman was discussing a number of perspectives and ideas, many not related to finance. One idea was regarding education, specifically that our public schools need a comprehensive overhaul. This is (in his opinion) because the world is going through massive changes and is making the inevitable move to a "knowledge economy".

Schwarzman is not the first individual I've heard elaborate on this subject, and as an educator I am intrigued by the knowledge economy concept. I agree that our education system is in need of updating. I also agree that this is largely due to the fact that society is changing. You don't have to look far to see how the manufacturing sector has been impacted. It is moving - at blinding speed - into a digital based work force. Companies have been impacted by artificial intelligence, digital applications, and/or software based technologies. And while we all tend to think of blue collar jobs as those most threatened by technological advance, white collar jobs are no safer. Advances in cloud based technologies and machine learning are making white collar work such as perusing legal documents and bookkeeping just as endangered as jobs on the assembly line.

Enter the concept of a knowledge economy. A general definition of "knowledge economy" is: "...a system of consumption and production that is based on intellectual capital. It typically represents a large component of all economic activity in developed countries. In a knowledge economy, a significant part of a company's value may consist of intangible assets such as the value of its workers' knowledge or intellectual capital." I see intellectual capital as the ability for workers to shift jobs within a company because their old job was eliminated, or changed. Based on the speed of technological advance, this is going to happen often. This is why society needs to begin shifting education towards teaching humans how to be lifelong learners. We have to begin to teach our kids, and maybe ourselves, that the whole idea and concept of a "job" is drastically changing. This means teaching abilities like intellectual flexibility; openness to new ideas; creativity; communication skills; and social and emotional learning skills.

By coincidence, the day I listened to Schwarzman espouse on a knowledge economy, I also read an article stating how the World Health Organization may remove America's status as a nation that has eliminated measles. America is experiencing a resurgence in measles - an illness once thought to be practically eradicated. According to the article, one of the main reasons for this is the spread of misinformation on the Internet. I don't think it's a secret that there's a significant number of grown ups who, when it comes to deciding if they should vaccinate their children, are choosing to NOT believe a scientist - one who spends her days at a bench examining biological evidence, pouring through academic and medical research, and performing science experiments of her own. Rather, these grown ups prefer to believe the actress Jenny McCarthy (or Jim Carey, Alicia Silverstone, the rapper Kevin Gates or Robert F Kennedy Jr.) as well as other voices from a non-scientific community.

We currently live in a time where science (by and large) is greeted with a side eye - and it's not just science dedicated to medical advances. There is a significant population who do not believe the science warning us of the effects of climate change. We also seem to be moving away from the idea of higher learning. Between 2012 and 2019, there was a 12% increase in the number of Americans who believe college is having a negative effect on the country. This is due to a combination of people believing college students aren't being exposed to views they may find offensive; increased tuition; a belief that professors are bringing political views to the classroom; and also a belief that students aren't learning job skills for the future.

In addition to the above, our kids are growing up in a world that provides 24 hour access to videos and websites telling them things like the children killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting didn't really die, but were actors. There's still a significant number of people who believe the former President of the United States was not born in America. There are also videos "proving" that a plane didn't crash in Pennsylvania on 9/11. How is a knowledge economy supposed to emerge within a culture pushing this kind of "knowledge" while also telling kids don't trust college...or science?

I believe that in order to begin preparing our children for a knowledge economy, we must make the following changes to education: In addition to writing, reading, arithmetic, civics, history, art, and music - we must now also teach children the definitions of truth and knowledge. We must also teach social and emotional development (this is to improve empathy as well as listening and understanding). I also believe we must start introducing these ideas and concepts in kindergarten. If you think that's a crazy idea, next time you're out to dinner, glance around the restaurant and observe the number of children under the age of five swiping through an iPad. Technology is anything but age appropriate, and kids have access to warehouses full of misinformation every day beginning when they're old enough to look at a screen. How are we teaching them to navigate what's real and what's not?

In 369 BC Plato wrote an entire dialogue on knowledge in the Theaetetus. The concept of knowledge (epistemology) is constant throughout Plato's writings, but the Thaetetus is viewed as his greatest work on the subject. In the dialogue, the question "what is knowledge?" is asked and three different definitions are presented: knowledge is perception; knowledge is true belief; and knowledge is true belief with an account. A lengthy dialogue ensues between the main characters (including Socrates) as each definition is examined, questioned, and reexamined. I'll cut this short and tell you the final conclusion: knowledge is actually none of these things.

The Theaetetus provides a great perspective for those looking towards a knowledge economy: You never know everything. You must keep searching, and you must keep learning. This also (by the way) is the essence of philosophy. This is also how we must begin teaching our children.

Remember when you were a student and you needed an answer or information? You went to the library. It was there you found encyclopedias, subject specific books, and articles. You even had the opportunity to ask questions of an actual human (the librarian). Imagine being a student today and doing a Google search on a topic and seeing what comes up? Where does a student even begin? Googling a subject is like driving a tractor trailer up to a warehouse and having them jam the trailer with books and other resources and then being told to sift through them. How does one obtain "knowledge" in a scenario like that? How do they decipher truth? What are they learning? Are we teaching them how to do this?

If we really want to move into a knowledge economy, we have to begin thinking not just about the massive change going on, but how we're going to deal with it. If we want to collectively address something like climate change, we have to begin teaching our kids to not only read science, but how to understand it. We also have to teach them how scientific scholarship is more factual than Twitter. We also need to teach them that Wikipedia, Facebook and memes aren't a source of factual information. We must also teach our children that opinions are very different than facts. We must also teach them to be open and understanding of other people's perspectives and points of view that may contradict their own. In essence we need to teach our children that living in a free society, that is now experiencing massive change, carries the incredible responsibility of being well informed - and if we want to carry this freedom into this century and be a thriving nation, true knowledge is going to get us there.

A knowledge economy can't grow out of a culture that is being swayed by misinformation. A knowledge economy also can't grow out of a culture where the loudest voice in the room...or on Twitter...or on TV...or on the radio...or on Facebook isn't always the voice telling the truth. The word "culture" after all carries two meanings. There's the culture of society that defines food, music, art, style, and social habits. Then there's a culture where something grows - a biological culture. If we want a knowledge economy to grow out of our current culture, we better begin spreading the seeds of thought, curiosity, discovery, understanding, listening, and learning. A culture of knowledge will grow and encourage its economy to do the same.