The pyramid is steep, and yet ascending it is essential. It is nothing less than what places human beings above the devices we invent to serve us. The pyramid of Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom (DIKW) was identified more than 40 years ago, and it became an important paradigm for placing the human role in our world into a relevant perspective.
The base of the pyramid was always almost this vast, but our limited access to it was what kept it comprehensible. Before digital tools, it was difficult to reach the extent of known data, and it took a scholarly lifetime to access even a specialized segment of it. Certainly, humankind expanded our base of data to some extent, through the course of history. And yet perhaps that base grew less than we might imagine, because survival and evolution from the beginning depended, not on our raw strength or size, but rather on our abilities to observe and adapt.
Considering this, it might be argued that we lost as much data as we gained through history, because the forms of awareness that it took for early human beings to track game, forecast weather organically, and read the potentials of terrain, for example, expired from disuse. Data, or the raw recording of observation, might be seen as the empirical substitution for pre-existing abilities. Whatever way we view the formation of the base of data on which life depends today, the Smart Keeper collection of computer and laptop security protection has become a critical element for defending that foundation from disruption through contamination and sabotage.
Protecting the Process of Knowledge Formation
Turning this broad base of data into real information got an appreciable boost with the coming of digital technology. The ability of computers to organize and access vast bodies of data was an obvious benefit. Perhaps less obvious was the resulting avalanche of things to know. Actual knowledge formation depends now, as it turns out, on applying focus and priority to the seemingly limitless fields of information available. Making good judgments about relevance – a distinctly human activity – is a vital ingredient in distilling information into knowledge that does not go away with digital tools. Keeping the process of knowledge formation clear, unencumbered, and uncontaminated is a vital goal.
The peak of the pyramid – wisdom – has been defined, in part, as knowing what is right, not only what is true. The full definition is elusive, but a good beginning on wisdom today would be to protect the tools with which we build it. The Smart Keeper collection of products is a firm step in that worthwhile direction.
At The Connectivity Center, our experience and perspective enables you secure the physical access to your data and components, the open front door of the digital networks and information systems on which we all depend today. We stand ready to serve you with a vast, carefully curated array of cybersecurity devices at any time, because time is risk when it comes to achieving cybersecurity.
