Since personal electronic media, the teleprocessors and computerized keypads that register public opinion are inherently democratic . . . Lawrence Grossman , The Electronic Republic Knowledge is at the heart of a dynamic civilization . . . A dynamic civilization maximizes the production and use of knowledge by accepting widespread ignorance. At the simplest level, only people who know they do not know everything will be curious enough to find things out. To celebrate the pursuit of knowledge, we must confess our ignorance.
Dynamism gives individuals both the freedom to learn and the incentives to share what they discover.
A dynamic civilization allows its members to gain from the things they themselves do not know but other people do. Its systems and institutions evolve to let people develop, extend, and act on their particular knowledge without asking permission of a higher, but less informed, authority. In each case, an underlying assumption has changed. As the society moves away from hierarchies to webs, broad participation becomes possible. As telecommunications speed up connections, top down decision making becomes inefficient.