We live in an age of unprecedented scientific and technological acceleration. From artificial intelligence and genetic engineering to new energy technologies and space exploration, humanity appears…
We live in an age of unprecedented scientific and technological acceleration. From artificial intelligence and genetic engineering to new energy technologies and space exploration, humanity appears to be racing towards the future at a speed that allows little time for reflection. Innovation advances relentlessly, often faster than societies can assess its consequences.
This raises a fundamental question: Do we possess sufficient knowledge to govern the speed of our own progress? Or are we moving so quickly that we risk leaving knowledge gaps that may eventually become global vulnerabilities?
At the heart of this question lies a concept that deserves far greater attention: knowledge sustainability.
Knowledge sustainability can be understood as a society’s capacity to produce, preserve, transmit and continuously develop knowledge across generations, ensuring that it remains available and relevant to human decision-making. It encompasses scientific research, archives, educational institutions, legislation, financing and governance.
While education focuses substantially on developing the individual, knowledge sustainability focuses on the resilience of the knowledge system itself, its institutions, continuity, memory and capacity for renewal.
Knowledge should therefore be regarded as a civilisational resource, much like water or energy. In some respects, it is even more fundamental, because knowledge determines how societies understand, manage and replenish other resources. Its sustainability concerns humanity’s ability to comprehend complexity, anticipate consequences and make informed choices.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals address education, innovation, institutions and other areas in which knowledge clearly plays an essential role. Yet knowledge, understood as an integrated system of production, preservation, transmission and renewal, does not stand as an independent goal. This invites an important question: Should knowledge sustainability itself become a distinct pillar of the global sustainability agenda?
Knowledge is not simply an accumulation of information. It is the resource that enables us to create and manage other resources. It is the bridge between ambition and wisdom, and increasingly, the safeguard that can prevent innovation from becoming risk.
Islamic civilisation offers important historical examples of this principle. Knowledge was not merely an intellectual pursuit; institutions evolved to preserve and transmit it. Scientific and educational endowments helped support schools, libraries and centres of learning over long periods. In contemporary language, they represented an early form of sustainable financing for knowledge.
More than a thousand years ago, Baghdad’s House of Wisdom emerged as a renowned centre associated with books, translation and scholarly activity. Its deeper significance lies in the recognition that knowledge requires institutions. A civilisation that seeks continuity cannot merely produce ideas; it must preserve them, transmit them and provide succeeding generations with the means to build upon them.
A contemporary Arab initiative announced in Sharjah offers an interesting modern expression of this principle.
At the opening of the 45th Sharjah International Book Fair on 4 November 2026, His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, unveiled 143 volumes of the Comprehensive Arabic Encyclopaedia of Science, Literature, Arts and Notable Figures. He said the project, once completed, is intended to become a trusted Arabic reference that brings knowledge together and facilitates access for researchers and readers, in both print and digital formats.
The significance extends beyond the publication of an encyclopaedia. In his address, the Ruler of Sharjah described culture as a responsibility and connected service to humanity with nurturing the mind and developing human awareness. He also emphasised making knowledge accessible and encouraging younger generations to research and think.
This is precisely where the initiative intersects with the idea of knowledge sustainability.
Knowledge does not become sustainable simply because it has been produced. It must be collected, verified, organised, preserved and made accessible, allowing one generation to transfer an intellectual foundation to the next. Print contributes to preservation and continuity, while digital availability expands access. Together, they represent two essential dimensions of a sustainable knowledge infrastructure: protecting intellectual memory and widening the community able to benefit from it.
This process is further strengthened by His Highness Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohamed Al Qasimi’s announcement of the Harun Al Rashid Award for Sciences, Literature, Arts and Notable Figures, an international award intended to recognise scholars, researchers and creative contributors to Arabic knowledge and culture.
The relationship between these initiatives is important. An encyclopaedia preserves and provides access to knowledge; an award encourages the continued creation of knowledge; and a book fair connects knowledge with society. Together they illustrate a knowledge ecosystem in which production, preservation, transmission and renewal reinforce one another.
Yet the challenge today extends far beyond books and libraries.
In the digital age, preserving knowledge also means safeguarding digital memory against technological obsolescence, fragmentation and loss. As an increasing share of human knowledge is created digitally, civilisations must think seriously about whether the information they generate today will remain accessible, intelligible and trustworthy decades from now.
At the same time, technological development is creating another problem: the widening distance between our ability to invent and our ability to understand the consequences of invention.
Artificial intelligence is advancing rapidly. Genetic technologies raise complex ethical questions. Developments in energy and space sciences are expanding the boundaries of human capability. The problem is not innovation itself. Innovation is indispensable to human progress. The real danger emerges when technological capability develops faster than the knowledge, governance and ethical frameworks needed to understand and manage it.
This is why knowledge must increasingly be regarded as a system of safety.
Knowledge gives societies the capacity to anticipate risks, assess long-term consequences and create ethical frameworks around emerging technologies. It enables humanity to distinguish between what is technologically possible and what is socially desirable or ethically responsible.
Artificial intelligence makes this particularly urgent. Its expanding global influence raises legitimate questions about international standards, safety, evaluation and governance. If humanity has built international institutions to manage technologies whose consequences cross national borders, we should ask whether emerging AI systems ultimately require stronger and more specialised forms of international coordination.
A future international framework or institution for AI safety and governance should therefore be considered not merely as a regulatory response, but as part of a broader architecture of knowledge sustainability. Humanity needs not only increasingly powerful technologies, but equally sophisticated systems for understanding, evaluating and governing them.
If nations wish to advance without becoming victims of their own acceleration, knowledge sustainability must become an integral part of public policy: preserving scientific knowledge, financing research, transferring knowledge between generations, strengthening risk-assessment institutions, integrating ethics into innovation and developing effective governance for emerging technologies.
This is not a cultural luxury. It is a civilisational necessity.
Civilisations should be judged not only by the sophistication of what they invent, but also by their ability to remember what they have learnt, transmit what they know, understand what they create and anticipate the consequences of what they do.
Knowledge is the resource that creates other resources. It is civilisation’s memory and innovation’s compass. What humanity needs today, therefore, is not simply more innovation, but more sustainable knowledge to guide innovation, connecting speed with foresight, ambition with wisdom, and progress with responsibility.
Only then can the race towards the future remain a journey of human advancement rather than a leap into the unknown.
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