Information overload, artificial intelligence, fake news, slanted analysis, book-burning and gas-lighting: recent global events have caused commentators to question the relationship between information, knowledge and wisdom. Faced with a barrage of data they quote T.S. Eliot…
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The point they make is that not all information is useful, nor does it constitute knowledge. In addition, not all knowledge is useful, nor does it constitute wisdom. And while that’s a profound thought in the context of World news, I doubt that you clicked the link to the Border Post blog to read about current affairs, wars (trade or military), tyranny and propaganda.
You’ll be relieved to know, then, that the first thing that crossed mind on hearing the quotation above was the Cheltenham Festival.
Okay, the Cheltenham Festival is never really very far from my mind at this time of year (which can be roughly defined as the period commencing in April and concluding in March), but bear with me – what knowledge can we distil from the masses of information we receive in the build-up to the Cheltenham Festival?
Do any of the tweets, posts, betting-market swings and media reports really help us to determine whether the Willie Mullins trained Lossiemouth is likely to appear in the Champion Hurdle (which she won’t win) or the Mares Hurdle (which she would be a short price to win – but won’t because our selection in the race is another flying grey: Joyeuse).
Furthermore, if we ask ChatGPT, do we actually know whether the assembled computers of the planet can tell the difference between Lossiemouth trained by Willie Mullins and Lossiemouth trained by Polly Gundry, holding an entry in Wednesday’s Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle? The two horses, seeing as you ask, are permitted to share the same name because one was bred and registered in France, the other in Britain. But amongst all the information available about all of the horses, how much of it really matters…
Having succumbed to Cheltenham Festival Fever as a young teenager, I’ve reviewed an awful lot of information and I thought I’d assimilated quite a lot of knowledge: for example, if you like big priced winners, you should know that only one favourite has won the Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle in twelve years.
To narrow the field down further, you might like to know that three-quarters of the winners over that period carried between 10st 6lb and 11st 5lb. Liam Swagger appeals at odds of 33/1.
But on sifting through the knowledge, you might ask, where is the wisdom? As T.S. Eliot put it: in the perpetual revolution of configured stars… where is the life we have lost in living?
No one ever said that attending or backing horses at the Cheltenham Festival was wise. Against the backdrop of World events, however, it is an awful lot of fun.
Have a good week!