Dogs hear much better than you. Does it bother you that there are frequencies they hear and you don't? As Buckminster Fuller notes, "space" is full of electromagnetic waves - it's not really empty at all. Does it bother you that you can't see the waves passing by?
Much of the "new" information is information that's always existed. The true origin of the universe, the nature of quarks and black holes and chromosomes, aeronautics and fluid dynamics. More species existed in El Salvador 100 years ago than today, and still El Salvador has an amazing number of species, and still most of us couldn't name 1/100th of them. That some of us start to understand these things and use them, should that make the rest of us go crazy? We ignore information or use it or are distracted by it, maybe other possibilities. Does it really change our lives to know the earth we stand on is spinning at 1000 miles per hour? In The Little Prince, the accountant sat there counting all the stars to know how many there are. Most of us aren't that obsessive. Let "information overload" come. It's only an overload if you try to pick it all up. Nicholas Thompson wrote: > Hmmmm! > > Something bothers me about the notion of an information explosion. > > Let's say that information is a statement about the number of different > things in the world that could possibly be pointed out. Then information > is a constant, or infinite, or both, eh? > > Lets say that information is astatement about what can becommunicated from > one human being to another. Then it depends, does it not, on the ability > of humans to process. then information can increase only if our ability to > process increases and there can never be an over load of information. > > Am I nuts, but does this notion of information overload only arise from > using the word "information" simultaneously in these to somewhat > contradictory senses???? > > Nick > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > > > > ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
