Uploaded February 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Almost everything you know comes from only one (of three) levels of knowledge.
Knowledge emerges in stages of complexity, with more abstract knowledge emerging from and reorganizing prior knowledge. There are three main levels of knowledge now (and a fourth emerging just in the past few years).
- Disciplinary: Foundational, narrow research and knowledge about reality. Classic science and most conventional knowledge lives here.
- Interdisciplinary: Narrow knowledge combines to tackle broader, multifaceted fields. eg., much AI work lives here
- Transdisciplinary: Sees all prior knowledge and finds the patterns that connect to create first scientifically-credible Big Pictures of reality. Very few people know about or operate from this level.
Each of these levels emerges and reorganizes how the prior is understood. (Think of how your 18 year old self has reorganized your thinking on something versus your 8 year old self: it’s a qualitative and fundamentally novel reorganization. This is a not-unrelated metaphor for what’s going on above.)
Almost everything you know comes from only one (of three) levels of knowledge.
Knowledge emerges in stages of complexity, with more abstract knowledge emerging from and reorganizing prior knowledge. There are three main levels of knowledge now (and a fourth emerging just in the past few years).
- Disciplinary: Foundational, narrow research and knowledge about reality. Classic science and most conventional knowledge lives here.
- Interdisciplinary: Narrow knowledge combines to tackle broader, multifaceted fields. eg., much AI work lives here
- Transdisciplinary: Sees all prior knowledge and finds the patterns that connect to create first scientifically-credible Big Pictures of reality. Very few people know about or operate from this level.
Each of these levels emerges and reorganizes how the prior is understood. (Think of how your 18 year old self has reorganized your thinking on something versus your 8 year old self: it’s a qualitative and fundamentally novel reorganization. This is a not-unrelated metaphor for what’s going on above.)
