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Knowledge is power.

It’s an old adage, to be sure, and it’s right on the money.  Mostly.  Getting access to information is the first step.  It’s the “easy” fix we all crave.  As ubiquitous as big guns and fast ships are to sci fi, the acquisition of knowledge is one of the ultimate powers a any hero can lay hands on.

But knowledge is a thing.  It’s an acquisition, albeit an intangible one.  It’s something that you can hoard, something you can keep or spend.  But knowing how to APPLY that knowledge, that right there is the key to power.  That’s what puts a person in the Presidency, not his or her personal smarts, but how to apply the smarts of the people who HAVE all the information.

A cyberpunk future, where we can download knowledge straight to our grey matter, is on the horizon.  But it’s not going to help anybody.  It’s not going to make anything better simply because people can learn facts (with all the petaflops of information out there right now, cat videos are still what everybody googles for first thing in the morning).  Downloading just HOW to apply that information, grabbing slivers of more experienced lives and minds, THAT is going to be where the true power lies.