Computer Science Department
University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019, Auckland
New Zealand
cthombor@cs.auckland.ac.nz
CLARK D. THOMBORSON
For millenia, educators and philosophers have pondered the nature of ``knowledge.'' How should it be defined? How can it be acquired? Does it have intrinsic value? Recently, computer scientists have developed systems that promise to accelerate or even automate knowledge acquisition. In this paper, I argue that computer systems are not capable of ``knowing'' anything: they can only manipulate entropy, information and doctrine, under reasonable definitions of these terms. Educators, by contrast, are concerned with doctrine, knowledge, and wisdom. I further assert that knowledge, like any ``entropic item,'' has no intrinsic value. The value that seems associated with entropic items should instead be attributed to a communication process.