Our obsession with managing content and data through digital devices is so vast, and indeed severe, that other options are seemingly inconceivable. But as we move from the Information Age to the Knowledge Economy, we are forced to do just that. Otherwise, we face the very real risk of unraveling 2300 years of knowledge. 

The great Swiss Psychologist, C.G. Jung, proved that our unconscious is not just a bunch of instincts and repressions, but contains “intelligence” that comes to us seemingly out of nowhere. What’s more, technologies for managing the unconscious have been in existence for thousands of years, yet conventional wisdom of the modern era has largely failed to take notice.

Using the document metaphor as a synonym for knowledge effectively decapitates the concept of knowledge itself. All the while, the perpetrators—the Information Technology (IT) vendors—grumble about their inability to shake the information management stigma. IT analysts provide some relief but not enough to reclaim knowledge in a broader context.  To do so requires nothing short of taking a hiatus from Western civilization.