Knowledge is indeed power, not because we acquire ability from knowledge, but because we apply ability to experience. We all have a transferable ability to understand cause and effect, sequences and systems, and this ability works the same no matter what it’s applied to. Isn’t this sort of a wonder in and of itself?

We all have an innate ability to apply what scientists call theory of mind, even to things that are popularly thought to be almost mindless, and it still works to help us avoid unwanted brushes with predators.

You mean intentionality? Yes, and that same sense of intentionality lets us understand any new technology we may come across. It’s the same knowledge even though the two areas of skill are obviously different.

Intentionality is a feature of both. Yes, knowledge is present in both.

We couldn’t arrive at a decision on a course of action without knowledge, but we can arrive at a decision on a course of action without skill. We have reason to expect some degree of predictability from our environment, because there does indeed exist predictable patterns in our environment. This is why science even exists.

What is science? Science is a set of skills ideally used to arrive at a circumscribed body of knowledge defined as empirical.

So, what makes us choose to develop one skill over another?

Survival depends more on skill than knowledge. Survival depends more on knowledge than skill, or there would never have been the understanding to get in out of the rain.

How, when we admit the gator has no knowledge but survives? I admit that the gator has no skills. I would say the gator does indeed have knowledge.

Skill is survival.. Knowledge is survival. To think about survival without skill is to be eaten. The skill of spear making without the knowledge of what can be eaten would leave humanity to starve. Knowledge is not thought. You can think of things you really know nothing about. You can know things you don’t really think about.

Neither alone can intend survival. If we know we can eat certain leaves, but don’t have the skill to pluck them, we still starve. It takes no skill to pluck them, just the knowledge of our own bodies. We don’t train a child to use their hands. They grow in knowledge of their hands and their intention to use them.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~