The process envisioned for the creation of this knowledge-base is a self-perpetuating process of knowledge accretion and organization we are calling auto-cybergenesis. The basic concept of cybergenesis is the natural selection of ideas by user feedback. The way it works is that the thousands of visitors to this site will sculpt its contents by electronically responding to each concept presented as the knowledge system takes shape and grows.. Users and staff members alike will contribute additional content, links, ideas, and opposing views, all of which will be hotlinked from each content page. Our hope is that people will want to contribute content and financial support both because they want to see a resource like this develop and to share their views with others. Contributors will be able to freely quote key excerpts from copyrighted material because we are a non-profit educational foundation and because many of the published works will be available through our fund raising on-line bookstore.
The technical components:
As it is currently envisioned, the KnowSys Project will combine the most exciting aspects of several emergent technologies. Human culture is defined by anthropologists as "the non-genetic transmission of information". As we approach the third millenium, this epiphenomenon of the human species is in the midst of a transformation as revolutionary as the development of language and the invention of the printing press. The information and communication technologies spawned by the development of the personal computer are just beginning to reveal their potential. What we are seeing is the inevitable merging of many of these new technologies. Soon we may all have one multi-purpose interface to the global information net which will replace, computers, television, the telephone, and even many uses of books and libraries. This will be a quantum leap for "the non-genetic transmission of information".
An auto-cybergenic knowledgebase would be a self organizing, user-created mega-database in cyberspace (available via the internet) that would provide continually updated, easy to access information on any subject. Beyond the KnowSys project which is limited to subjects relating to human self-knowledge and the human potential, cybergenesis could be used to create knowledgebases on such subjects as health and healing technologies, global ecology, emerging technologies, consumer information, or any other field of knowledge of interest to large numbers of people. It would embody some of the qualities from several existing media type now in use:
Like the discussion threads in the thousands of topical newsgroups that are now flourishing on the internet, the knowledgebase would be built largely by input from people interested in the subject addressed by the knowledgebase. It would avoid the anarchistic chaos seen in many newsgroups by utilizing a CGI based feedback system to weight certain threads and restructure the knowledge-base according to user consensus or support.
An auto-cybergenic knowledgebase would resemble a CD rom inter-active multi-media encyclopedia in that it would provide organized, easy to use, searchable access to a large body of information. The difference would be that there would always be someone to talk to about the subject you're interested in and as a user you can submit new material for possible inclusion and vote on what is already posted.
Like a scientific journal, the knowledgebase would be a peer reviewed place for the publication of ideas and new developments and understandings. In addition to its self organizing neural net features, it would have an interdisciplinary editorial staff to organize abstract (non-quantifiable) contributions such as completely new ideas. Instead of a brief "letters to the editor" section, it would use forms based instant e-mail to add user feedback to postings as soon as they go on-line. Postings that the majority of users find irrelevent, misleading, or innacurate would fall by the wayside but would still be available on the periphery of the knowledge-base. The opposing views and other user feedback would be accessible via sidebar hotlinks. They themselves would be self edited by the same self-selection process.
Like an expert system, the knowledge-base would provide a shell for the
knowledge of individual experts in the relevent fields. Inter-active educational
program: Like a piece of inter-active educational software, the knowledgebase
would utilize hypertext and be multi-tracked to allow access to people of
all academic levels. The main paths of knowledge would be multi-tracked
for young users, lay users, and academic specialists. The young user and
lay tracks would be simplified with deeper levels of explanation available
on-line. The academic tracks from which the lay text would be derived or
abstracted would be more sophisticated and copiously referenced and footnoted.
World Wide Web:
Using the WWW, the cybergenic knowledgebase would include "hotlinks"
to other information sources on the web. Many of the references mentioned
in the text would also be anchors to URL's (uniform resource locators) for
large bodies of information found elsewhere on the web. These references
could include on-line scientific journals, literary works, religous texts
and archives from various usenet groups. On-line resources such as the Gutenberg
project would be copiously cross-linked.
INTELLIGENT AGENT TECHNOLOGY:
The most recent development of useful intelligent agents designed to go
out on the internet and retrieve and organize information on specific topics
holds tremendous promise for future development of the KnowSys Project beyond
its present design scope.
The basic structure of a Cybergenic Knowledgebase:
1) Begin with skeleton of subjects to be addressed. Forms based hotlinks
and simple CGI scripts allow users to input ideas even at this level i.e.
suggestions for major structural or content changes.
2) Create a template (like a hypercard background) that allows users to
input new material or feedback into an area where it is filtered, tabulated,
and edited.
3) Specific fields in the template will return data to the "user layer"
of the knowledgebase regarding levels of concensus among users and "experts".
An interesting way to do this may be to have a bordering gif file or hot
buttons that change color like a mood ring - Links to controversial ideas
may become red hot, while well established or popular views bay be outlined
in blue. A small meter icon might be included to give quantified data for
the more analytical users.
4) Postings that are favorably received by users will become an active part
of the knowledge-base. The more popular the posting, the higher it will
move in the list of perspectives on any given subject.
5) The editorial review staff will make structural changes according to
input from both the automatic user feedback tabulations and suggestions
from other users. Both of these functions could eventually become the domain
of intelligent agent interpreters which would be transparent to user input-
("objective")
6) The system includes an on-line tutorial for contributors that will help
them to conform their writing to the format of the project. Forms accompanying
the contribution will guide the contributor in providing references, quick
summeries,hotlinks, and information on their qualifications in the subject
area if they are representing themselves as "professional contributors".
SOME HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
In the evolution module of KnowSys you will find an ongoing discussion on
the impact of language on the development of the human brain and human culture.
Elsewhere you may find a similar dialog on the impact of the invention of
the printing press on our collective human self knowledge. However you measure
the impact of these two monumental developments, the historically explosive
emergence of computers, hyper-media, and the internet may well prove to
be even more important to the ultimate fate of our species.
When you combine the amount of information that can now be accessed and
linked via the millions of computers connected to the internet, with the
ease with which many people can contribute to an online forum, you can begin
to see how large, dynamically evolving bodies of information could suddenly
become available to anyone who might have access to a television today.
In the KnowSys Project, we are applying this new hybrid technology to issues
of human self-knowledge and personal empowerment.
Unlike television, this new development in mass communication will be a
two-way system.
If you have had the opportunity to experience the newsgroups and online
discussion forums that are becoming so popular here in cyberspace, you know
that many thousands of subjects can be simultaneously discussed in great
detail in discussion "threads" using this new communication technology.
You may also recognize the chaos and information overload that can result
from such open forums. In the KnowSys project, we envision a knowledge system
that organizes many opinions on a variety of subjects into an easy to navigate
body of knowledge that re-enforces pathways to views that prove useful,
interesting, or have withstood the test of time, while preserving eccentric
views that can be accessed in its searchable archives by anyone interested
in them.
The KnowSys Project actively solicits content contributions from experts
and scholars in the various fields included in the knowledge-base as well
as new perspectives from other fields that may shed light on these issues.
There is even a place for individual anecdotal reporting of personal experience.
The key to integrating all these approaches will be the extensive use of
user feedback reviewed and organized by a very high quality interdisciplinary
editorial staff,and by the inclusion of an automated system of user driven
editorial moderation.