Bill, I notice that you used one of the code words, information pickup. Are you a gibsonian?
Nick > [Original Message] > From: Bill Eldridge <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com> > Date: 5/29/2007 5:13:37 PM > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Shift happens > > > 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
