Source: Searching for Lost Knowledge in the Age of Intelligent Machines in The Atlantic

What if other objects like the Antikythera Mechanism have already been discovered and forgotten? There may well be documented evidence of such finds somewhere in the world, in the vast archives of human research, scholarly and otherwise, but simply no way to search for them. Until now.

Undiscovered public knowledge: coined by Don Swanson. A problem that occurs when researchers arrive at conclusions independently from one another, creating fragments of understanding that are “logically related but never retrieved, brought together, [or] interpreted,”

Are better tools for collaborative thinking with networked thought potential ways to counteract this? What about digital permanence? How do we effectively search for information?

“The prime action of use is selection, and here we are halting indeed. There may be millions of fine thoughts, and the account of the experience on which they are based, all encased within stone walls of acceptable architectural form; but if the scholar can get at only one a week by diligent search, his syntheses are not likely to keep up with the current scene.”

As We May Think, Vannevar Bush