The difference between knowledge and information.

Jan Ardena

Jan Ardena

OM!!!
Banned
One day, a very scholarly English gentleman, while travelling in India, decided to go across big river, so he asked one of the village people who owned a small boat, if he would take him, to this request the boatman agreed.

As they started, the sun became obscured by dark clouds, and as the river was large, the gentleman realised that the crossing would take some time. So he started a conversation with the boatman.

“Did you know that the sun is approximately 93,000,000miles away, and yet it has provided heat and light, throughout the universe since time immemorial, baring that, if it was to shift, even a fraction of an inch out of its orbit, there would be total devastation?”

The boatman replied; “My dear sir, I am just a simple man who has had no education, there is no way I could know such information”

“Then” said the gentleman “You are 25% fool”.

Some time passed, and as they were coming to the ½ way mark, the thunder began to rumble.

“Did you know notice the lightening, just before the rumbling sound”. The gentleman asked. He continued. “Do you know how that phenomenon occurs”
“No sir” replied the boatman.
“Its occurrence is due to the expansion of rapidly heated air,” the gentleman exclaimed, “ You are 50% fool.

About ¾ of the way the weather completely changed. It became dark and started to rain heavily and started filling up the little boat with water clearly making it difficult for the boatman. But the foolish gentleman insisted in questioning.

“Do you know how we get rain”,
“No sir,” was the reply.”
“ The sun evaporates water from the sea, this gets stored in the clouds which then travel by be wind power, then when they become full, it lets all the water go, over the land. That’s how we get rain.”

“You are 75% fool.” Said the gentleman, now feeling very smug.

The gentleman was suddenly interrupted from his basqueing by a loud cry from the boatman,
“Oh no! I have lost my oar and now the water is about capsize the boat, we have no alternative but to swim the remainder of the way, luckily for us it is not very far.”

“But I can’t swim,” cried the gentleman now seeing his own imminent death.

“Then my dear sir, you are 100% fool” said the boatman.

Love.

Jan Arden.
 
knowl·edge (nlj) n.

1. The state or fact of knowing.
2. Familiarity, awareness, or understanding gained through experience or study.
3. The sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned.
4. Specific information about something.

in·for·ma·tion (nfr-mshn) n.

1. Knowledge derived from study, experience, or instruction.
2. Knowledge of specific events or situations that has been gathered or received by communication.
3. A collection of facts or data.
4. The act of informing or the condition of being informed; communication of knowledge: Safety instructions provided for the information of passengers.
 
I like my version better....

“Its occurrence is due to the expansion of rapidly heated air,” the gentleman exclaimed, “
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The boatman retorts, "Quick expansion yes wise sir, but the quick contraction has nothing to do with it? And if there is lightning and no one is around to hear the thunder does it make a sound? Your 25% fool.

“Do you know how we get rain”,
“No sir,” was the reply.”
“ The sun evaporates water from the sea, this gets stored in the clouds which then travel by be wind power, then when they become full, it lets all the water go, over the land. That’s how we get rain.”
Click to expand...

The boatman, then replies, "No Mr. Meteorologically inept, the Bergeron process accounts for the majority of our precipitation, not merely condensing clouds." Your 50% fool

Then the boatman then taught the man about buoyancy and archimedes principle among other things and explained why boats float. He gave the wiseman a crash course in physics and then the wise man replied confidently, "Ah, so if there were less mass in the boat it would float better right?" The simple boatman with a gleam in his eyes said, "Absolutely correct." Before the wiseman could savor in his discovery, the boatman pushed him overboard saying, "I'll float better now."

Your 110% fool :p

Wiseman drowns and the simple boatman floats to shore and lives happily ever after.
 
He is only a smart man, not a wise man. A wise man won't across large body of water under stormy weather in a small boat.
 
So the wise man is a murderer?

Throwing people overboard for petty pride? I think the idiocy of trying to drown a man for pride overrides any notions of knowledge, wisdom, or decency.

A wise man would have understood the intellectual limitations of the fool, and not pushed him overboard.

Nor, in the topic post's version of it, does a boatman who cannot handle his oar have any right to be criticizing.

Dunno, the whole thing seems like a couple of children puffing their chests in the schoolyard. Seems pretty silly.

Especially that last crack by Vinnie: let me guess, your Daddy can beat up someone's Mommy? :rolleyes:

Did I ever tell you about the Catholic priest, the Lutheran pastor, and the Rabbi?

The punchline is, ... so they haul the sputtering rabbi out of the water, whereupon the pastor says, "Danny, you think we ought to tell him where the rocks are?" ;)

thanx,
Tiassa :cool:
 
Tiassa, no one threw anyone out of the boat. Your post makes no sense in the context of what's actually written in the story.

I thought it was pretty simple.

Ben
 
Cainxinth,

***Safety instructions provided for the information of passengers.***

Yes, it is only information as presented. However, if danger presents itself and the passengers are instructed to "swim" the information is rendered useless for those who don't know how to swim because they never took the time to learn. Perhaps they were afraid of the water. Perhaps they saw swimming as a frivolous, non-intellectual activity. Perhaps they put their faith in other people: the captain, the pilot, etc... to save their life. Perhaps they thought there would always be material lifeboats.

For those who took the time to learn how to swim, or whose parents forced them to learn how to swim despite their objections, when danger presents itself the information becomes practical knowledge that can save their life.
 
Then read, KalvinB

Tiassa, no one threw anyone out of the boat. Your post makes no sense in the context of what's actually written in the story.
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Well, KalvinB, I'm curious. What, did you just look around for a post of mine to respond to, or did you read any of the other responses? I think, in light of your post, the answer is obvious. So I'll fill you in on what you chose to skip over in your mad quest for a worthless argument:
Then the boatman then taught the man about buoyancy and archimedes principle among other things and explained why boats float. He gave the wiseman a crash course in physics and then the wise man replied confidently, "Ah, so if there were less mass in the boat it would float better right?" The simple boatman with a gleam in his eyes said, "Absolutely correct." Before the wiseman could savor in his discovery, the boatman pushed him overboard saying, "I'll float better now."

Your 110% fool

Wiseman drowns and the simple boatman floats to shore and lives happily ever after. (Ilgwamh, 12/4/01)
Click to expand...
And why is this post important, you might be asking? Well, it doesn't matter if you are, because I'll tell you: Did you notice the title of Vinnie's post? I was addressing the preferred version which includes murder.

Perhaps, KalvinB, you might notice such distinctions with better effort:
Nor, in the topic post's version of it, does a boatman who cannot handle his oar have any right to be criticizing (Tiassa, 12/10/01)
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Now, do you have an opinion on the topic, or are you just here to muck around not reading anything?

Just because your hired topic didn't work out as you hoped does not mean you need to take it out on other people's topics. Check with UPN next time; I hear there's writers down there just begging for work.

--Tiassa :cool:
 
The stage is yours, Jan

You all seemed to have missed the point..
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Without sarcasm, we eagerly await your presentation thereof.

thanx,
Tiassa :cool:
 
"Nor does a boatman who cannot handle his oar have any right to be criticizing"

That's apples and oranges. If the boatman criticized the gentelman for losing an oar then maybe.

Apples and apples is something like your insistance of being abusive (as recently as a couple posts ago) while shuning Tony for the same. My topic worked just fine.

Ben
 
Jan arden
this is how we misinterpret spiritual knowledge. People do not get what is intended. We all have information of life but no knowledge of life and that is the cause of our misery. We do not live our lives , we just pass our life time. We do not what why we are meant to be born and live life. we have no difference from animals which like us also have food, sex and death. we have invented tools. But that gives no credit to humans because animals and other living creatures have also their tools. Beaver builds bridges, birds build nest in perfect geometry...etc etc....what makes us human is to "explore, experience and express" that unlimited, eternal in our limited body in limited life span.

http://www.matrixjourney.com/quest.htm
 
I think information is defined to be the substance, material or bit sequence which separates some object from another object[Shannon probably?]. Knowledge, however, is a more specialized, encompassing what we should do with information. In practice the two are often bllurred, but I think knowledge is at more operative level. At a fundamental level there's nothing tangible to information. Our mind processess abstract images and objects, not because the information are the objects, but because the information separates the objects from each other, allowing the mind to group the object to a given knowledge about the object.
 
My point is that U should admit that U lost in the debate and all your teachings of god has fall short to fight the evolution of rationalism for the fact that U could not reply that post of mine dear.
 
RawThinkTank said:
My point is that U should admit that U lost in the debate and all your teachings of god has fall short to fight the evolution of rationalism for the fact that U could not reply that post of mine dear.
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RTT, there was no debate, only you banging on about how rational you are compared to humans, as if you yourself are not human.

Jan Ardena.
 
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