Knowledge capture through the millennia: from cuneiform to the semantic web

As we celebrate twenty-five years of knowledge capture research we can view it from a short-term perspective as a substantial component of the sixty-year development of digital computing technologies, or from a long-term perspective as part of the most recent segment of the hundred millennia evolution of recorded knowledge processes that have shaped our civilization. We can trace the development of knowledge capture processes similar to those we now study: from the Neolithic origins of our civilization; through the Babylonian development of mathematics and writing; Greek innovations in logic, ontology and science, and their medieval elaboration; the development of formal logics, metaphysical systems and sciences stemming from the scientific revolution; to the computational implementation of knowledge representation, capture, inference and their ubiquitous application in our current information age. This presentation outlines major events in the trajectory of knowledge capture processes over the millennia, focusing on those relevant to where we are now and where we may be going. It encompasses: the evolution of civilization from archeological, economic, sociocultural and systemic perspectives; highlights in the formalization of knowledge capture processes through the ages; trajectories of the development of knowledge technologies supporting its representation, capture and use; to projections of expected major issues and advances in the next quarter century.