עֵ֕ץ הַדַּ֖עַת ט֥וֹב וָרָֽע

Confusing Gross Growth of the Tree of Knowledge

Or, of "the knowledge for administering reward and punishment," suggesting that the knowledge forbidden by יהוה Yahweh and yet acquired by the humans in בְּרֵאשִׁית, Bərēʾšīṯ, "In [the] beginning" Genesis 2–3 is the wisdom for wielding ultimate power. Although reward dependence is considered a moderately heritable personality trait that is stable throughout human lives, it is an inherited neurophysiological mechanism that drives the human perception of society and the environment. Even though human beings are born with these personality traits, their expression during their life span can in most cases be modulated throughout development.

Three independent “temperament” dimensions aid in measuring how different individuals feel or behave. Proposed by C. Robert Cloninger as part of his “unified bio-social theory of personality” the “tridimensional personality theory” components are:

• “Reward Dependence (RD)”
• “Harm Avoidance (HA)” and 
• “Novelty Seeking (NS)”.

RD is influenced by a single monoamine neurotransmitter system: the noradrenergic system and RD is correlated with low basal noradrenergic activity. Several research experiments have investigated and supported this hypothesis, that RD traits are indeed in part determined by norepinephrine.

A cylinder seal, known as the Adam and Eve cylinder seal, from the post-Akkadian periods in Mesopotamia (circa 23rd-22nd century BCE) has been linked to the Adam and Eve story. Assyriologist George Smith (1840–1876) described the seal as having two facing figures (male and female) seated on each side of a tree, holding out their hands to the fruit, while between their backs is a serpent, giving evidence that the fall of man account was known in early times of Babylonia.

"There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief"

—Said Who? "Said the Joker to the Thief"

And  he  went on  proclaiming

"Businessmen, they drink my wine

Ploughmen dig my earth

None of them along the line know what any of it is worth"

There are many graphs showing how everything will lead to "The Singularity" by 2045, notably according to predictions made by Ray Kurzweil (Google’s Director of Engineering). Will it prove true? Let us wait and see what happens. In the meantime, here are some 20th-century insights on the acceleration and accumulation of knowledge and information.

"Let us assume that by the year A.D. 1 we had accumulated an arbitrary single unit of knowledge. Fifteen hundred years later (A.D. 1500) the sum total of human scientific and technological knowledge had about doubled. At about this point the scientific revolution had begun, welding the natural curiosity of humanity to disciplined scientific techniques and quickening the pace of progress."

― Alvin Silverstein, Conquest of Death

"The Jumping Jesus Phenomenon is my name for the acceleration of information throughout history. I first heard of that through Alfred Korzybski, a Polish mathematician who invented a scientific discipline called General Semantics. Korzybski noted that information was doubling faster and faster, every generation.

And he said we've got to be prepared for this, we've got to train ourselves to be less dogmatic and more flexible so that we can deal with change. He took the year 1 A.D. as his basic unit to calculate how long it took for the information available to human beings to double, and it took 1500 years...which brought us up to the Renaissance. Leonardo Da Vinci was in his forties, and the Renaissance was at its height."

"I decided to call this unit a "Jesus": so, in 1 A.D. we had "one Jesus", in 1500 we had "two Jesus". The next doubling only took 250 years, so already you can see the acceleration factor, and by 1750 we had "four Jesus". The next doubling took a hundred and fifty years and by 1900 we had "eight Jesus". The next doubling only took fifty years and by 1950 we had "sixteen Jesus".

In 1960 in only ten years we had "thirty-two Jesus", by 1967 we had "sixty-four Jesus", and by 1973 we had "128 Jesus", and the latest estimate I've seen is by Dr Jacques Vallee, a computer scientist who says that knowledge is doubling every year. But I heard that estimate, oh, five or six years ago. I saw something on the net recently, somebody estimated it's doubling about twice a year now."

― Robert Anton Wilson

"The ignorance of how to use new knowledge stockpiles exponentially."

―  Marshall McLuhan

為學日益，為道日損。

"Along the way to knowledge, many things are accumulated.

Along the way to wisdom, many things are discarded."

― 老子《道德經》四十八章