The Future of Personal Knowledge Management
Information has never been more readily available or abundant in human history. Only books, individuals, and personal observations could provide knowledge less than 40 years ago. Today, 62 percent of the world's population has access to the Internet, the world's biggest repository of knowledge.
However, as the volume and accessibility to nearly endless information grows year after year, the challenge of knowledge management emerges. The human brain is not designed to keep the quantity of information that people are pushed to absorb in the workplace and school. The necessity for a place to reliably store knowledge has, and is becoming, increasingly apparent. The solution to this problem has already been made over 5000 years ago, with the invention of writing–the beginning of the management of knowledge, otherwise known as knowledge management (KM).
But, what is personal knowledge management (PKM)? In essence, PKM is purposeful note-taking. From the classroom to the workplace, people manage their personal knowledge by writing notes on a journal, recording voice memos of their thoughts, screenshotting a page to look at later, and more. It's a tool that people use to “make sense of the world”–although unlimited access to information may sound appealing, no information is meaningful or important if it is not tailored to the individual. PKM enables its users to record and relate their knowledge to its relevance to their lives, as well as to get to know themselves in a new light, instead of hoarding information of a certain topic, never to be referenced again.
Personal knowledge managers can employ digital tools to assist them capture, organize, link, and retrieve their information from any point in time, which the brain cannot do as effectively or efficiently. PKM apps (Notion, OneNote, Evernote, Apple Notes, etc.) are, in some ways, digital copies of the brain that are more accurate and permanent. Because the human brain cannot keep up with the rate at which technology advances, individuals utilize tools to assist the brain in remembering.
So, what is PKM's future? What are the future prospects for PKM systems and technologies, particularly artificial intelligence? Is it even conceivable for artificial intelligence to steer human ideas, or must note-taking and knowledge acquisition be done only by the human brain? To what extent may digital technology improve thinking? To answer these and other similar questions, it may be useful to speculate what a perfect piece of PKM technology would be, and the extent where its features become too advanced to render it as a note-taking software, rather than a sentient computer.
Phillip wakes up to his alarm, ready to tackle the day. He removes his glasses from the charging port and checks his notifications and daily news. When he sees an interesting article, he saves it to his 2brain (Second Brain) for later reading. Phillip is reminded to email Mr. Rodes about a question from yesterday night's study session, so he enters it into the AutoEmailer, which sends the email with his question, where he got it, when he thought of it, and what it's about.
Once he arrives at school an hour early, he rents himself a study room and gets working. With a blink of an eye, Phillip is given every relevant research paper, interview, video, and more on the history of PKM, all of which is summarized into a comprehensive infographic for him to assess. Knowing that the infographic is perfect as it has been for the past 6 years of using it, Phillip confirms the information and waits an eternity of 3.23 seconds before given a two-page paper filled with videos, interactive graphics, hyperlinks, and concise block text about the all the intricacies of PKM. Satisfied with his hard work, Phillip checks the time and leaves the study room, ready to attend his first class.
Take note that Phillip did not read anything in the short story. There was no meaningful knowledge that entered his brain, and he did not draw his own conclusions from the information, but rather saved what his glasses offered him for later. Phillip would discuss the advantages and cons of the Zettelkasten method with his AI instructor, Jeb, during his last period, referencing the note he “wrote.”
While this world appears to be too distant in the future, it highlights an essential philosophical question: why do we acquire knowledge? Why is it that students are taught to graph trigonometric functions and analyze Shakespearean plays? Anyone, at any time, can pull out their phone and search almost anything without having to do extensive research first. Even today, the majority of queries have been answered and posted on the Internet by people who have spent the time researching their particular disciplines. In the future, anyone on the Internet might ask any question and have it locate the answer in milliseconds, as well as any follow-up inquiry in the comments section. The only unresolved questions will come from people on the edge of human knowledge, researching in areas few have delved into. These experts are discovering and expanding information, rather than amassing it.
What is the lesson here? The lesson is that people must make knowledge their own. Information has no meaning if it’s just given to them. People must think how this is relevant to them, and how they can connect to it personally. AI can easily replace simple information memorization. The human ability to connect and make sense of information, on the other hand, will (hopefully) never be surpassed by digital equivalents. Tools are intended to assist and enhance, not to replace.