speed = more information - but why?
by Stephen Wacker
Remember that sense of awe-inspired wonder when you first learned that no two snowflakes are alike? I do. And for me, the feeling of awe was extended when I learned there's a finite amount of energy in the universe, that it just takes different forms. Now I wish someone would tell me there's a finite amount of information in the universe; perhaps then I wouldn't feel so damned overwhelmed. I don't know which is worse - being inundated with information or not having enough.
I use a computer as much as the next person, probably even a little more. In fact, sometimes I wonder if I could write anything at all anymore without a word processor. But I wonder about how computer technology and the Internet serve us as they evolve, and how they help us - or don't help us - deal with information effectively.
The earliest machines, like the lever, magnified our muscle power to help us move things. Industrial-age machines, like the steam engine, used other sources of energy, but they essentially made us stronger. Now we use computers, or thinking machines - although we know that they don't really think, but just calculate quickly. And computer networks provide the ability to communicate quickly.
Basically, software recreates what our brains are capable of doing. Programming languages are used to create applications, which are collections of processes that we want the computer to perform. We can accomplish these things ourselves, but not as quickly. So, there's not really anything new being done; we're just doing things faster.
Some say that the speed makes us more intelligent, because it creates more options for us to work with, but I'm not totally convinced of that. And some say that the increased speed makes us work more efficiently, whatever that means. But although our infatuation with computers is essentially a quest to go faster, we're still challenged to find ways of identifying what information is essential.
Consider a successful retailer, one that has traditionally relied on the expertise of its buyers to know what will sell. Then, as technology evolves, these people are provided with computer programs that shower them with all kinds of data. They learn how many purple widgets were sold in Boston on the third Tuesday of each month, or whenever there was a full moon. And, since everyone knows that numbers don't lie, they become a significant factor in purchasing decisions, overwhelming the judgment of those who include other factors in their decisions. Sales start to tail off. The company wonders what happened. Eventually, they come to understand that interpreting information is at least as important as accumulating it, and that numbers, while important, are only a part of the overall picture.
Information overload isn't just a work phenomenon, either. We're also subjected to the deluge in our personal lives. We have virtually instantaneous access to everything from sports scores to 401(K) plans to world news headlines - not to mention book prices, car choices, stock options, and childcare considerations - and let's not forget cellular choices, house prices, and book options. How are we empowered by all this information? Does it increase our leisure time, or enhance our quality of life?
In his new book, "Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything," science writer James Gleick ponders a world that is moving ever faster because of technology, which provides the ability to slice time into increasingly thinner pieces. Perhaps we're shaving it so thin that we're compromising its essence - you know, like the cook in the Paul Bunyan legend who made pancakes so thin they only had one side. Does anyone remember if time was any thicker fifty years ago?
But the issue isn't really speed, it's the amount of information. And although I've written previously of the need to find ways of coping with the information avalanche, here's a different way of looking at it: perhaps it's all part of a process. Could the development of the computer - which is, after all, an invention of the human mind - be part of a larger scheme that we're not focusing on? Perhaps we're being forced to deal with more information in order to develop and use some of the untapped potential of our brains. Perhaps we should tame our egos a bit and think about technology and the Information Age as evolutionary instead of revolutionary.
Lately I've been thinking of that I Love Lucy episode from the 1960s, the one where she worked in the candy factory. When the conveyor belt went nuts, poor Lucy was faced with an onslaught of chocolate candies, more than she could handle, so she started grabbing them and putting them wherever she could - her mouth, her pockets, down the front of her blouse, etc.
We're definitely getting faster, and we're finding ways to stuff the chocolate in lots of places, but to what purpose?
Copyright 1999 Stephen Wacker All Rights Reserved
Contact Stephen Wacker at swacker@accessone.com regarding use of this copyrighted material. Stephen Wacker writes about technology, culture and society. His career as an information technology professional has focused primarily on communications and the Internet. Mr. Wacker also writes about contemporary popular music and is an accomplished songwriter and guitarist.