The entire world system of education and enterprise is founded upon the known. Students attend institutions of higher learning to become knowledgeable on a particular discipline. The emphasis for the student is on amassing knowledge in order to perform a function within the business world. Starting a new job, the young and now "qualified" graduate--someone officially possessing the knowledge--is expected to gain specific knowledge of the business and thereby sharpen his or her contributions to the job function.

Accomplishment today is viewed within the enterprise as fully dependent upon what you know. The entire scenario, from the first day of kindergarten to the last day of employment before subsequent retirement, is about amassing knowledge that you can use to contribute to the bottom line of a business.

The role of the knowledge worker is the ultimate expression of this modern-day expectation. I work for a business, and in order for my efforts to be profitable to that business, I must learn to work with knowledge of that business and its products. The whole scenario makes sense, except for the fact that this knowledge worker is only one aspect of business and is not the most important. The more important role of knowledge creator has not yet been realized or mastered.

If we examine this same scenario across the ages, we see that the Information Age is one of collecting knowledge and making it available to the masses (publishing). Mass printing allowed for mass information. Paper forms, typewritten records, and libraries of books emerged. Then, as paper information grew more and more difficult to manage and retrieve, the computer arose as a tool to manage this massive amount of knowledge. At first, the computer was seen as an individual knowledge-storage device. Eventually networks emerged, and then the Internet became a globally interconnected knowledge depository. Electronic publishing emerged to populate this network.

I would contend that, while the method for managing knowledge has evolved, our global society is largely operating within the same framework as it was 50 years ago. As a result, we are still sitting solidly within the Information Age. Society may have more knowledge and sophisticated electronic tools to manage this knowledge, but with all of this sophistication, the paradigm continues to be about simply collecting and publishing/retrieving knowledge.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Every now and then, in a serendipitous accident, unwary individuals stumble upon new knowledge. We aren't really trained for this, and, since education and enterprises in general don't understand the process for this knowledge creation, there are no expectations set for that process. As a result, there are no rewards in place for accomplishments in this arena.

Creating New Ideas

Let's face it: Coming up with a new and invigorating idea in a major corporation can be a lot like a shark feeding frenzy. The new idea is tossed out to the populace and ripped apart by individuals and groups with their own agendas until the idea takes on a new form that may or may not bring benefit to the enterprise. At the end of the process, everyone quickly forgets who came up with the concept. After all, it was just an accident, right? Wrong.

Ideas are not accidental. Rather, individuals often "accidentally" follow a defined and predictable process that they do not have knowledge of. Ideas can be purposed.

The next quantum leap and new era of accomplishment for mankind is bound up in the move from emphasizing knowledge workers to emphasizing knowledge workers in partnership with knowledge creators.

While the knowledge worker works with existing knowledge, the knowledge creator works with knowledge that does not yet exist. This sounds paradoxical, but it is in fact a process that is definable and can have scientific precision: the science of generating ideas.

I have termed this realm of the unknown anti-knowledge. Not to be confused with anti-intellectualism, anti-knowledge is the antithesis of knowledge--it is all that is not yet known. Whereas all knowledge is structured, the knowledge that does not yet exist but that will eventually be created forms an antithetical structure to knowledge that already exists. The basic building block of this realm of emerging knowledge is the question.

Questions in our society are seen as individual units that stand alone. Like the role of the knowledge creator, the definition of the question is nebulous and is not well understood. In many dictionaries, for example, the definition of question is "to ask a question" and not much more. Just ask yourself, "What exactly is a question?" Our global society does not possess the knowledge to answer that.

Could it be that we have under-estimated the awesome power of this little building block that exists within the realm of the unknown? Could it be that we have looked at each question in isolation and not at the broader, antithetical structure that these questions form? Could it be that harnessing this process is the key to reducing research and development costs that are escalating out of control? Could it be that understanding this antithetical structure of questions is the key to a quantum leap that will move society out of the Information Age? Yes, yes, yes, and most definitely yes.

The question is powerful but little understood; the role of the knowledge creator is to harness it. This process absorbs concepts like creativity, creative problem-solving methods, innovation, genius, and knowledge creation into a simple and powerful process.

A question alone is a minuscule indication of the absence of knowledge, while all questions combined comprise the entire perceivable realm of the unknown. Questions arise where knowledge structure is absent. Hence, the first line of the question is found at the cutting edge of any discipline or topic. Cutting-edge solutions are those that have converted contextual questions into new knowledge. The knowledge creator's role is to collect and process these contextual questions within the realm of anti-knowledge and to convert these to new knowledge.

The Quest for Questions

Questions individually are like little flags planted in the context of a new idea. Collectively, these questions form a structure of an emergent concept or an idea. It is absolutely critical to realize that questions and ideas exist in a future structure and are not random accidents. Forcing structure upon this unknown realm by categorizing questions and ideas actually results in new knowledge. This is because these questions and ideas only exist as a shadow of knowledge to come, which is structured.

While questions form at the hint of emerging knowledge structure, questions exist only because a person or an organization has a sufficient knowledge context to realize there is something that is not known. For example, unless you have amassed the knowledge of physics, you will not be able to ask cutting-edge questions about the discipline. We would not expect the average banker to contribute to the progress of physics. Hence, the knowledge creator for physics must first amass knowledge of physics before converting cutting-edge questions into new knowledge. Knowledge creation, then, is a specialty, and so is the role of the knowledge worker.

However, since most knowledge work is performed in narrow, departmentalized "silos," it is often the interdisciplinary individual who is able to "bridge the gap" and move a concept forward. Knowledge is one and, within its perfect state, is structured. Disciplinary silos work against this structure. Interdisciplinary knowledge creators can help to make this single structure seamless by answering questions common to one or more knowledge domains.

Imagine a world full of knowledge creators who know precisely how to convert anti-knowledge to new knowledge. Imagine further the automation of this conversion process. The result would be an exponential explosion of knowledge. Knowledge would easily grow faster than the human capacity to manage it. Hence, the entire concept absolutely must be supported by harmonized knowledge interactions around the global brain. The knowledge worker has many sub-roles within these interactions, as does the knowledge creator.

This world is one of knowledge cooperation and the realization of various roles that contribute uniquely to the global brain. This world is purposed, and knowledge-creation accidents are a crudeness of the past. This world of the future is one of harmonized knowledge creation, storage and access, and application. Understanding what the global brain is, how it works, and how it is driven by the cycle of knowledge and anti-knowledge will propel our world into an absolutely mind-boggling future. The concept of anti-knowledge is rising to propel the world into this future.

About the Author

Bruce LaDuke is managing director of Anti-Knowledge Enterprises, LLC, 6102 Brockworth Drive D, Indianapolis, Indiana 46203. E-mail knowledgemachine@hotmail.com; Web site www.anti-knowledge.com.

Editor's note: The term Anti-knowledge is trademarked by the author.