Knowing What We Know

The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic

By: Simon Winchester

Narrated by: Simon Winchester

Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

“A delightful compendium of the kind of facts you immediately want to share with anyone you encounter . . . . Simon Winchester has firmly earned his place in history . . . as a promulgator of knowledge of every variety, perhaps the last of the famous explorers who crisscrossed the now-vanished British Empire and reported what they found to an astonished world.”—New York Times

From the creation of the first encyclopedia to Wikipedia, from ancient museums to modern kindergarten classes—this is award-winning writer Simon Winchester’s brilliant and all-encompassing look at how humans acquire, retain, and pass on information and data, and how technology continues to change our lives and our minds.

With the advent of the internet, any topic we want to know about is instantly available with the touch of a smartphone button. With so much knowledge at our fingertips, what is there left for our brains to do? At a time when we seem to be stripping all value from the idea of knowing things—no need for math, no need for map-reading, no need for memorization—are we risking our ability to think? As we empty our minds, will we one day be incapable of thoughtfulness?

Addressing these questions, Simon Winchester explores how humans have attained, stored, and disseminated knowledge. Examining such disciplines as education, journalism, encyclopedia creation, museum curation, photography, and broadcasting, he looks at a whole range of knowledge diffusion—from the cuneiform writings of Babylon to the machine-made genius of artificial intelligence, by way of Gutenberg, Google, and Wikipedia to the huge Victorian assemblage of the Mundanaeum, the collection of everything ever known, currently stored in a damp basement in northern Belgium.

Studded with strange and fascinating details, Knowing What We Know is a deep dive into learning and the human mind. Throughout this fascinating tour, Winchester forces us to ponder what rational humans are becoming. What good is all this knowledge if it leads to lack of thought? What is information without wisdom? Does Rene Descartes’s Cogito, ergo sum—“I think therefore I am,” the foundation for human knowledge widely accepted since the Enlightenment—still hold?

And what will the world be like if no one in it is wise?

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Simon Winchester (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

a thorough and engaging inquiry into knowledge on the whole.

the book is well worth your time and money. At times it runs a bit pedantic but that is to be expected. I have to give credit for it not being exceedingly so. If you are the least bit interested in epistemology you will enjoy it immensely.

Fabulous Book!

I was excited the whole time reading! So many aha! moments, I was giddy!
Thank you for this experience! I actually have a copy of Enquire Within Upon Everything coming from Amazon!

Especially relevant now

Winchester is brilliant, witty and yes, wise. The topic is covered thoroughly and with his usual keen observations.

The thoroughness of the presentation of information

I very much like Simon both for his writing style and his mastery of the delivery of his works.

Singularly engaging.

Who knew what we know could be so amazingly interesting? Excellent story even though nonfiction, Mr. Winchester MAKES it a story.

Fascinating even digressions

As a retired knowledge philanthropist, (a public reference librarian who had amassed a wealth of knowledge and then gave any of it away for the mere asking,) I found this delightful as as Winchester went over ground I had studied and then added his own experienced insights. I will now spend some effort to look into Confucius and Aristotle a bit more thanks to the author's suggestion, but I must admit to doubts about his final suggestion that maybe the AI world would free the mind to seek a wiser, more creative and more virtuous life. Perhaps among those predisposed, but unlikely as genius among any populace. i recently wrote a speculative story about AI taking humans out of all forms of expression as the planet dies out from our hugely bad fossil fuel mistake. This book makes me wonder if I should balance that outlook with the fantasy that there will be an alternate group of humanist brains who do, in fact, find purpose and virtue for enough people to turn things around in time. Thank you, Simon.

Winchester at his patrician best

Sw does his typical thorough and meticulous study of this fascinating subject his vocal inflection is so listenable an engaging

Effective Presentation of Mankind’s Long Search for Truth

In these Post-Truth Times it was great to get back to the Basics of why and how Cultures all over the Planet have tried to find and spread Truth to their People. Winchester does a comprehensive and well-researched job of tracing the Evolution of these efforts.

We often bog down in debates over what is Truth and devolve into battles over whose “Truth” to accept. This book changed the perspective by concentrating on the changing technologies used to explore and express Knowledge. The Author also shows how those technologies and their accompanying politics affected the publication of those Truths.

This journey from Shamans to Holy Books to Apps and AI was a very pleasant and readable experience. Five Stars for Content and Narration. *****

Simon Winchester once again expands what we know

As with his other books provided insight and bringing forward the interconnected elements of human development and history. Provides a widening and depth to the other elements often glossed over or little mentioned about significant events in human history. A more sophisticated “the rest of the story”

Winchester is the best

Like all his books, fascinating, wise, and wonderfully read. Highly recommended, a great, engaging book.