Wildfires<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n One can be busy extinguishing wildfires and have no time to think about climate change causing these wildfires. Of course, the wildfires need to be extinguished. But with no attention to climate change, there will be more wildfires, and one will be more busy extinguishing them, not less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There will be ever less \u2018time to waste.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indeed, there are many wildfires: so many things to do, to accomplish, to give one\u2019s attention to. Hundreds, thousands daily. Any professional can feel overwhelmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, one needs to make choices. That\u2019s true; that\u2019s life. It\u2019s my life, also.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I guess it\u2019s modern times.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n But it\u2019s not that simple, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please, dear reader, waste some time on this blog and think about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Choices have to be made based on insights. These can be fueled by data, information, knowledge, wisdom (Compassion). There is an immensely important distinction in this path. [see: \u201cThe Journey Towards Compassionate A.I.<\/a>\u201d]<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou have to look at the facts,\u201d is a worthwhile argument, for sure. Facts are crucial. As data, they are the start of all the rest. Mind: They are no the end of everything, but only the beginning. In this sense, they are the ground level on which any decisional building gets erected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The data are not the building itself.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n With \u2018facts\u2019 (conceptually), one can also point at information, being data in a relevant context. Whether something is relevant, is somewhat subjective in any case. Sometimes very subjective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this sense, \u2018alternative facts\u2019 can be data as looked upon from another subjective viewpoint, forming other information. Data are data; the viewpoint is alternative. This doesn\u2019t denigrate the importance of data nor information. On the contrary, but it does show that effort needs to be made. There is no free lunch apart from junk food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then there is knowledge.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Here, it really starts to become interesting and challenging. Intrinsic to knowledge is an active search for information, as well as the appropriateness of this information in specific contexts, internally (within the knowledge system itself) and externally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the path from data to information to knowledge, subconceptual processing (pattern-based at a level below concepts) is vital from the start. However, its importance grows as we get more into knowledge. [see: \u201cAbout \u2018Subconceptual\u2019<\/a>\u201d] [see: \u201cSubconceptual Processing in Health and Healing<\/a>\u201d]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here, we encounter the weird situation that as evolution proceeded towards us, intelligence (knowledge) becomes more prominent. Yet, unfortunately, its conceptual side overshadows more and more the subconceptual. One crucial cause is that conceptual communication is more apt to be reproduced with little loss or distortion. It is, on the knowledge level, an example of survival of the fittest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, we end up with disproportionate attention to the conceptual. Good for culture; bad for nature within us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n