Translatio Studii
Translatio studii - transfer of learning - is a historiographical concept, originating in the Middle Ages, in which history is viewed as a linear succession of transfers of knowledge or learning from one geographical place and time to another.
Chrétien de Troyes - 12th century French poet - in his poem "Cligès", explains that Greece was first the seat of all knowledge, then it came to Rome, and now "it has come to France, where, by the grace of God, it shall remain forever more".
In the Renaissance and later, historians saw the metaphorical light of learning as moving much as the light of the sun did: westward. According to this notion, the first center of learning was Eden, followed by Babylon, and Jerusalem. From there, the light of learning moved westward to Athens, and then west to Rome. After Rome, learning moved west to Paris. From there, enlightenment purportedly moved west to London. The metaphor of translatio studii went out of fashion in the 18th century, but such English Renaissance authors as George Herbert were already predicting that learning would move next to America.
A pessimistic corollary metaphor is the "translatio stultitiae". As learning moves west, as the earth turns and light falls ever westward, so night follows and claims the places learning has departed from.
Where's the light of knowledge moving to?
Chrétien de Troyes - 12th century French poet - in his poem "Cligès", explains that Greece was first the seat of all knowledge, then it came to Rome, and now "it has come to France, where, by the grace of God, it shall remain forever more".
In the Renaissance and later, historians saw the metaphorical light of learning as moving much as the light of the sun did: westward. According to this notion, the first center of learning was Eden, followed by Babylon, and Jerusalem. From there, the light of learning moved westward to Athens, and then west to Rome. After Rome, learning moved west to Paris. From there, enlightenment purportedly moved west to London. The metaphor of translatio studii went out of fashion in the 18th century, but such English Renaissance authors as George Herbert were already predicting that learning would move next to America.
A pessimistic corollary metaphor is the "translatio stultitiae". As learning moves west, as the earth turns and light falls ever westward, so night follows and claims the places learning has departed from.
Where's the light of knowledge moving to?
Comments (10)
First time I hear this. Super-interesting, thanks for sharing! :up:
Kurzweil's Singularity?.. so it will end up that all the energy of the universe will be invested-itself in knowing itself. Something like that.
Other nations laid claim to the mantle, most notably Russia, which would involve a retrograde motion and rupture in the westerly direction.
I doubt that this metaphorical concept is still in America. The most plausible hypothesis in the context of the metaphor of this concept, is that no inhabited land of great influence is currently under the light of knowledge, as it is in the Pacific.
The concept itself is a way of studying the movement of knowledge throughout time and geographical space.
Concepts of "singularity" don't make sense and are impossible to achieve in a Universe with finite time and matter. So the most probable answer to your guess is no.
For me it makes sense and I can imagine it possible. I don't understand your argument. Why a finite Universe would imply singularity impossible to achieve?
Singularities are based on the belief of "exponential growth" - that is, they tend to infinity -. Therefore, it is physically impossible to be reached in a Universe of finite resources, space, time, and matter.
Infinity + Finite = 0
I find this a small detail, in a finite universe the exponential growth would stop once all the resources of the universe are consumed.
But the idea of the singularity I think is still there as a valid one to respond to your "where is the light of the knowledge moving to.
Think a bit more about it,
while it's highly likely that chaos can end up governing the universe or that humans will disappear sooner or later and universe will then get back to an death-like universe (I think this is the most probable answer to your question but let's put it aside for now),
human history and evolution of life can be seen as a matter of survival,
surviving means knowing your environment in order to keep your homeostasis so this makes of knowing the core of life.
Knowing means consuming energy to acquire and process the information and the more we want to know the more energy we need.
So now we are at a point where we need energy to know and survive.
As we all want to live forever... where will knowing go?... it will go on consuming all the energy of the universe in order for life to secure its immortality...
The point is that the concept of "Translatio Studii" is based on the movement of the "substance of knowledge" geographically, that is, attached to planet Earth and its continents.
You are not proposing a shift of knowledge horizontally, but vertically. You probably believe humans will colonize the galaxy, I don't. That's where we are disagreeing...