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quarta-feira, 9 de fevereiro de 2011

Too much information

I was trying to find a good example to show how complex the information bombing aimed at our brains are, and was kinda frustrated because I just find superficial (aka low level) stuff.

Then I suddenly find this book, and my task was done.


Lets imagine a scenario were we have an infinite library, with all knowledge (future and past) produced/to be produced by mankind into its infinite shelves. Somewhere there, there is a specific book, a small one, that explains to you how to use this library and how to find what you want.

But, what are the odds that we can find this one book (and therefore, all the ones you want) inside this endless piles of books? The answer is that you would probably spend an eternity looking for it, usually finding all kinds of nice and relevant stuff but at the same time tons of bullshit.

Lets now focus on our "real daily life". We suffer the same paradox of abundance of information. With internet, you can find really any stuff of any subject modified by any personal point of view. He have the tools but we still lack some means to discern in a more efficiently way. We lose too much time filtering stuff to get to the real meanings.

Back to the book´s library, the residents inside starts to grow a state of letargy and depression, because they can only find random useless stuff or learn that the truth was something different that what they belived.

Then the officers there needed to take some action to avoid a mass suicide, but that I will talk about on the next post, concluding this.

Stay healthy!

11 comentários:

  1. Good analogy. Not too long ago, the trouble was finding information. Sifting through it was easy. Now, those roles are reversed.

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  2. Sounds profound. You're making me want to buy that book...

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  3. Oh nice, it reminds me of Brave New World.

    Have you read it? It's very similar only it goes beyond information in books and online, it's also general comfort-bombing that takes us under.

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  4. You say it has both past AND future knowledge? Then surely we should have developed a method for finding specifically what we want to know/see/read? If not then I fear for our future. I'm not trying to argue you have brought up some interesting point's but with how the world is being run at the moment I fear for humanity's future.

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  5. There better be a computer database of where all the books are kept.

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  6. very interesting post we barely use our brain if we can fully use it we would be superhuman

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  7. Amazing post, I need to check that book out. It is a great metaphor for our societies morphing over the past decade.

    Not to mention the "upcoming" concepts of Cloud Computing.

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  8. interesting stuff. Only small bits at a time for my brain tho'.

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