For most of our evolution, we have been relatively disconnected from the whole of human understanding. Thus, we have always felt a sense of curiosity about the knowledge others have acquired, and what our fellow humans experience.

If we were fully aware of what everyone else knows and has experienced, we would achieve something called omniscience, the state of having complete and unlimited knowledge, awareness, or understanding of all things.

Knowledge has been difficult to acquire throughout most of our history, especially for the average person. However, our collective awareness has become more easily accessible in recent centuries, and especially in recent decades.

Before the printing press was invented in 1440, knowledge was primary passed down from one generation to the next via story telling and memorization, and the origin of that knowledge came from our own experiences, which we perceived through our five senses.

The invention of the printing press allowed for knowledge and stories to be etched on paper in mass and distributed widely. Following that, the establishment of public libraries in the 18th century made a convenient place for us to consume knowledge in book format.

In later years, the invention of the telegraph (1837) and the telephone (1876) made it possible to send small bits of information across the ocean or continents nearly instantaneously.

In more recent decades, the Internet and the World Wide Web (1989) made knowledge and information more easily accessible. Instead of searching for books on certain topics at your local library, you could just query a search engine and find relevant web pages.

With the arrival of the smartphone in 2007, knowledge became even more accessible. You no longer needed access to a desktop computer at the local library, or at home. Rather, you could take your smartphone out of your pocket at any time and ask it a question.

With the advent of AI in 2022, it is now no longer necessary to scan through a variety of websites to find information, because all the content has been aggregated into a single database (AI model), which you can easily inference from a smartphone.

Of course, the question of information origin comes into play, and that's where cryptocurrencies can play a role. The data being fed to build AI models can be authenticated and verified using blockchain technology, and cryptographic signatures.

Moreover, we can assume that big tech has been aggregating all of our posts and comments from platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and X into AI models. The people who have access to these models have a good idea of the common experience and sentiment among the people.

In the year 2025, the conscious mind now has instant access to nearly the entirety of the human knowledge and our collective experiences, taking us one step closer to omniscience. Could we be nearing the point of a "singularity", where we enter into a state of all-knowing consciousness?

Until next time...

If you found this article interesting, be sure to check out my other posts on crypto and finance here on the Hive blockchain. You can also follow me on InLeo for more frequent updates.

Sources

Singular Consciousness Image [1]
Printing Press Image [2]
AI Smartphone Image [3]