“Brazil” and the Information Explosion
In Grow With the Flow I say:
…. We’re so used to hearing phrases like “the Information Age” that we’re in danger of forgetting that this really is a fundamental change — quite possibly as important as the original invention of printing. The skills a young adult must have to survive are different than they were only yesterday. And the evidence is that the process will continue to accelerate: A higher and higher percentage of our intelligence will be housed outside our physical body.
I remember that as I wrote this, I had a vivid picture of myself sitting at my parents’ dining-room table:
Take a second to remember yourself as a grade-school student. You’ve been told to write a paper about Brazil. It used to be that if you knew how to interpret a library card, you were all set. Can you remember that your main problem was to find a single book, or an encyclopedia article, or an old National Geographic? Excuse me now, while I switch to my favorite search engine… Yep, just as I suspected: when I enter “Brazil,” I find 1,216,860 references!
I go on to say that I like what this flood of information does for kids, because it requires much higher-level skills than the ones I needed:
I love it! Back in “my day,” kids could get by with very low-level skills. Once I found a source about Brazil, and a picture or two from that National Geographic, all I had to do was ask one question: “Where are the scissors?” Now I look at those 1, 216, 860 references and I ask: How can I do a more focused search? What do I really want to know? What kind of key words might get me there? Which of these sources is giving me reliable information? This tour company obviously wants me to buy a trip to Brazil, but can I still trust their map? Shall I bookmark this article and see what else I can find? Shall I print this map now while I screen some more articles? Shall I download this image to paste into my paper? Wouldn’t you rather see your child doing this kind of thinking instead of cutting up innocent magazines?
It was perhaps five years ago that I Googled “Brazil” as I wrote this passage, and found a little over a million references. I Googled “Brazil” again today: “Results 1 - 10 of about 108,000,000 for Brazil” Check the zeroes: there are about 100 times as many entries on Brazil as there were when I wrote that sentence, only a few years ago. “And the evidence is that the process will continue to accelerate ….”
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I’m wondering when the River Town Bike and Pedestrian Program will be announced. And, will it be providing community bikes like those discuss by Tom Peters this morning: http://tompeters.com/entries.php?note=007835.php). Note, also, the bicycle and pedestrian advocacy efforts in Fort Collins, Colorado: http://www.experienceplus.com/reading_room/archives/advocacy/
Rick,
Thanks for this note, which serves several useful purposes:
1. I can ask, Did you get a notice that someone had responded to your comment? I get such, but perhaps only because I’m the administrator.
2. I can also ask, Did you in fact comment on “Brazil,” or did it migrate here from somewhere else?
3. It gives me a chance to deal with the question: When someone posts a comment that seems to be completely irrelevant to the original post, do I delete it, ot let it stand?
4. I also wonder, is this more appropriate to the coffee shop than the newspaper? That in turn leads me to wonder if we can find time for coffee tomorrow – my day is pretty full, but I could jam in a quick one.