I read an article on slashdot today about a prediction that 2008 is the year for too much information. I’ve always been of the mindset that everyone is just too weak and unable to adapt, but I’m starting to think they’re right. This damn blog is proof in and of itself. Who actually reads all the crap that is put out these days (this blog included)?!?
Now, to back up a step, I write on here more for my own benefit and enjoyment than for anyone else. If someone else stumbles across this and enjoys the random reading, more power to em.
I think my post earlier this year on my thoughts about humanity approaching some sort of asymptote in it’s existence is reminiscent of this whole issue. We are simply generating and keeping more information (useful and otherwise) than can even be imagined, and requiring ourselves to parse and take it all in, more than is humanly possible.
We’ve got all these damned gadgets now to help us manage the information (and are doing a very good job of it to be honest), but they are persistent in their nagging, and don’t let up unless you “accidentally” drop them off of a tall tower (which a friend of mine did recently).
What happens if we don’t parse it all and don’t keep up? Best case: the assanine schedules and commitments we hold ourselves too fall apart. Worst case: an extremely vital and important piece of information slips through the cracks of email passed over due to bad subject lines, or crappy spam filters, opening the way for worldwide disaster.
What is the limiting factor? Human mental bandwidth.
What is the (human) solution? In my opinion, there isn’t one. At least not of the sort that we hope. Large human societies, governments, social networks, and the like are best described as massive non-linear stability problems. Any attempt to model them, and hence, control them, is doomed to be ill conceived, and forever bereft of success, for the simple fact that no SINGLE person can understand the entire problem. We are bound to a future of unpredictable periods of instability, catalyzed by any one of a number of single or multiple dependent or independent events.
Why do we care so much? Damn good question. Simple answer: humans love control. We HAVE to be in control. We MUST be master of our own destinies. This ties into our beliefs on religion and spirituality. Do YOU have control of your fate? Do you even WANT to have control of your fate?
The only reason we in this country have the stability we do is because some smart dudes a few hundred years ago recognized the fact that societal control is impossible. The only constantly predictable (and hence, controllable) element we have is the very one we sometimes hate the most: our own selfish desires. Somewhat paradoxical. Societal (community) stability is derived from selfishness.
What is my point in all this? I think it’s this: turn up the damn spam filters, ignore the crappy emails, stop trying to parse and react to every bit of information, stop trying to save the world, and do what you want to do for a change, without getting in the way of others. Unfortunately, not everyone thinks this way, so our stability problem is not controllable.
So maybe that is my point. We’re screwed no matter what we do. We die eventually anyways. Probably worth caring more about what happens after we die. Doesn’t matter how smart you are, how politically deft you are, how influential you are, how many friends you have (or don’t), how many people you lead (or follow). It doesn’t matter because some jackass with a gun can very well come right up out of the noise floor and blow your head off, for no reason whatsoever, and there’s not a damned thing you can do about it. Some rare heavy element can embed itself in one of your cells and you can develop cancer as a result, and there’s not a damned thing you can do about it. A boulder could roll down a hill onto your house while you sleep and there’s not a thing you can do about it. The whole point is that YOU do not have control of anything on a large scale.
We have to know our limits. We’re nearing them. Recognize and live within them, or bad shit will happen.
Now that was a ramble. More crap added onto the pile of crap. Well, guess what: I’m proud of my crap =).
