Shift happens

[Nick Thompson]

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

[Bill Eldridge]

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
>
>
>
>  

[Phil Henshaw-2]

Well, abstract measures of real tasks are a problem...  I always thought
the difficulty of 'keeping up' had to do with the multiplying complexity
of the learning task involved with being part of a growth system.  You
could say it's natural, been that way for hundreds of years, and be
quite accurate.   Learning in an endless classroom where the teacher
give out % increases in homework every day, however, tends to eventually
destabilize.


Phil Henshaw                       ????.?? ? `?.????
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
680 Ft. Washington Ave
NY NY 10040                      
tel: [phone]                
e-mail: pfh at synapse9.com          
explorations: www.synapse9.com    

> -----Original Message-----
> From: friam-bounces at redfish.com
> [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of Nicholas Thompson
> Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2007 12:48 PM
> To: friam at redfish.com
> Subject: [FRIAM] Shift happens
>
>
> 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
>
>

[Marcus G. Daniels]

Phil Henshaw wrote:
> Learning in an endless classroom where the teacher
> give out % increases in homework every day, however, tends to eventually
> destabilize.
>  
Teacher gonna grade it all?

[Phil Henshaw-2]

nature has a real easy method of grading...


Phil Henshaw                       ????.?? ? `?.????
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
680 Ft. Washington Ave
NY NY 10040                      
tel: [phone]                
e-mail: pfh at synapse9.com          
explorations: www.synapse9.com    

> -----Original Message-----
> From: friam-bounces at redfish.com
> [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of Marcus G. Daniels
> Sent: Friday, June 01, 2007 1:15 AM
> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Shift happens
>
>
> Phil Henshaw wrote:
> > Learning in an endless classroom where the teacher
> > give out % increases in homework every day, however, tends to
> > eventually destabilize.
> >  
> Teacher gonna grade it all?
>
> ============================================================
> 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
>
>

[Marcus G. Daniels]

Phil Henshaw wrote:
>> Learning in an endless classroom where the teacher
>> give out % increases in homework every day, however, tends to
>> eventually destabilize.
>>  
>>    
> Teacher gonna grade it all?
>  
> nature has a real easy method of grading...
>  
Badly engineered things break, and unsustainable behaviors fail, species
die, etc.
Nature can have hard constraints and in some sense an absolute grading
scale.  On the interfaces of social systems, though, there is no choice
but to grade on a curve (e.g. the job market is only as good as the
people in it).