I read it as "casual" rather than "causal", got very dissapointed while reading the article!
An inventory of casual knowledge would be really fun, although it's hard to think what it would consist of now that I think about it...
There is this concept of "hidden knowledge" about all the things you know at work that no one really thinks about is knowledge so it's hard to let newcomers know about it.
But that does sound different than "casual knowledge", and so does "trivia".
Oh well!
I did, too! And it reminded me of a project idea I had a while ago:
A time traveller's wiki that collects casual knowledge for different times (and different places).
Such as: "Buying a train ticket in Paris in 1972".
But it was a shower thought and it's pretty hard to imagine how this knowledge should be collected and especially presented.
In a way, wikipedia is already doing this by keeping records of articles as they change over the years :)
The article about train tickets wasn't so good as an example but "computer monitor" from 2004 is kind of fun to read :)
Unfortunately, "casual knowledge" is often omitted when writing informative articles. In this example, there is no mention that power buttons are often located somewhere in the back of the monitor, which was good to know in 2004. Also, some monitors are drawing power from the computer, thus they won't power up before the computer will. And speaking of that: You may want to turn of your computer after shutdown!
Edit: This would probably be useful for novelists and filmmakers (in addition to the casual time traveller)
I find casual knowledge particularly interesting, because it's the exact kind of thing that's most related to my day to day experience, but is simultaneously the exact thing that our encyclopedias and AIs omit.
Could you be referring to what is known as tacit knowledge?
it's as simple as precisely describing "common sense"
Yes, that very simple task :D
But I also wonder if that is actually an equivalent.
I think of "common sense" as think you should know to function well in your current society.
I really don't know what "casual knowledge" would mean. In my head it's some kind of low stakes knowledge for everyday life (but more 'useful' than trivia).
Maybe the order is "common sense", "casual knowledge" and trivia?