ABSTRACT: The Web and the Advent of “SuperIntegration/Creation”

Andrew Updegrove

7/04/2005
(Original Publish Date: 2005)

Throughout history, the progressive acquisition of knowledge by mankind has involved five distinct tasks: learning, sharing, integrating, archiving, and then reacquiring (to start the process again) information, discoveries and ideas. The advent of innovations such as language, writing, printing, telecommunications and information technology have each dramatically increased the speed and volume of knowledge acquisition by optimizing our ability to accomplish one or more of these tasks. The Web now permits global, Web-based communities to combine all five of the traditional steps into a single democratic, merit-based, neural, real-time, ongoing, evolving, integrating process of knowledge acquisition. This revolutionary process may be referred to as "SuperIntegration/Creation," and can be expected to have a profound impact on how we live, work and learn.