Beyond its grip

Everywhere you look, more obviously so on the internet, the desire for more and more information, also known as data, is undeniable. There’s a hunger for evermore of it. The term coined for this phenomenon is “The age of information”. Why do we need all this information for? Is this desire based in evolution, greed or human expression?


atlas

The weight of knowledge


There’s no doubt that more information gives us more things. We, as a species, become more knowledgeable about the world as we soak in more information. But does that truly mean that we know better? Does it really improve our lives? In this way, are we better off knowing more than knowing less? Most people, I assume, would probably say that are better off knowing more. But, why? What is the reason that could proclaim us, as a species, to be a better or improved form, by knowing more things?

It is safe to assume that if one highly regards knowledge as a prime quality of human life, then one is obviously better off knowing more. On the other hand, if one sees that knowledge, in the sense of accumulating it, is in a way a never-ending chase, then one naturally sees that it will also never lead to a happier and more peaceful life.

If peace is the opposite of war then, analogously, it might be valid to say that chasing knowledge is the war-like side, in its relentless chase, of peacefully refusing to pursue an accumulation of knowledge. The sun does not need to know what is happening on earth to shine its rays upon it.


sunset


I don’t think that being knowledgeable is wrong. However, perhaps dedicating one’s life in its pursuit, by all means possible, might produce a costly outcome at the end of one’s life.

There is something serene about being completely unattached to this side that seems so prominent and common in society. Although this is not something that can be forced, it can be understood with time. No knowledge of any kind required. Only a desire to be free from its pull… from any pull. A pull moves you. Whatever can move you can control you. To be free from knowledge is to be independent from this tugging.

I have found that there is nothing quite like bathing in the simplest of things to remind myself of the quintessence of existence: the forest, birds, silence — No knowledge required, only attention.