What a tangled web we weave
In today’s fast paced world, it as often easy to take even the most monumental, significant and frankly astounding things completely and utterly in our stride. This blog is my modest attempt to shake mankind out of its collective complacency and force it to acknowledge one of the wonders it has achieved. In something of a coup of relevance, I will even use the object of my awe as the means of expressing it.
I refer, of course, to the Internet (and I have used a capital “I” on purpose).
The Internet is, frankly, amazing. No, actually it’s more amazing than the word amazing can convey. When I think about it, it has to go down as one of the most truly gobsmacking things I have ever borne witness to. The sheer volume of information we can now relay to each other at the push of a button or the click of a mouse is actually quite frightening, almost beyond comprehension. One can read, watch, hear, learn and find out about almost anything.
Instantly.
I try to shrug this feeling off, to treat the Internet as just another technological convenience, like cash machines, or digital watches, or the George Forman grill – a simple tool to make our lives easier. But every now and then the full enormity of what it represents washes over me like a wave, making me feel giddy and a little dizzy.
This is where the “Age of Information” begins to scare me a little. There really is too much information in the world now. We cannot, as mere mortals, hope for a second to process all this data. Our brains and senses do not interface that quickly. We are all doomed to drown in an ocean of facts, figures and opinions.
Have we gone to far? Is our compulsion to know all there is to know finally destined to burn us?
On balance, I think not.
For a start, I’m not sure that there is as much information as we presume. With so many websites dedicated to the same topics, some of it is surely repeating or reiterating itself, and so cannot be said to be truly adding to the total. It’s also worth noting that at least 50% of the web is taken up by pictures of people in various degrees on undress engaged in activities ranging from the mildly titillating to the downright obscene. Interesting, for a plethora of reasons, but hardly educational.
Also, I have a suspicion that the whole thing has begun to eat itself (and I’m not referring to something I saw in the pictures I mentioned – although that would be impressive). I found out recently that Teletext has a website. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but Teletext is a website. In fact, it was the first ever website. A basic one, granted, but it’s pages of information navigated via a simple point and click interface (i.e. the buttons on your remote). That’s where we’re at now – we have websites of websites, like some technological tautology.
But the real clincher, the thing that convinces me that actually everything is going to be okay, is that I’m sure I can’t be the only one who has sat at a computer, online, with the collected knowledge of mankind literally at his fingertips, and thought, “God, I’m bored”. The Internet is, for me, the shining epitome of mankind’s achievement as a species – but sometimes, for whatever trivial reason, we just can’t be fucked with it.
But our poor attention spans will be our saviour from information meltdown. It is this simple flaw that will save us – and I think it amply demonstates the unique and beautiful contradictions that make up humanity. Ultimately, our feet of clay may well prove to be our salvation.
Peace. X
I refer, of course, to the Internet (and I have used a capital “I” on purpose).
The Internet is, frankly, amazing. No, actually it’s more amazing than the word amazing can convey. When I think about it, it has to go down as one of the most truly gobsmacking things I have ever borne witness to. The sheer volume of information we can now relay to each other at the push of a button or the click of a mouse is actually quite frightening, almost beyond comprehension. One can read, watch, hear, learn and find out about almost anything.
Instantly.
I try to shrug this feeling off, to treat the Internet as just another technological convenience, like cash machines, or digital watches, or the George Forman grill – a simple tool to make our lives easier. But every now and then the full enormity of what it represents washes over me like a wave, making me feel giddy and a little dizzy.
This is where the “Age of Information” begins to scare me a little. There really is too much information in the world now. We cannot, as mere mortals, hope for a second to process all this data. Our brains and senses do not interface that quickly. We are all doomed to drown in an ocean of facts, figures and opinions.
Have we gone to far? Is our compulsion to know all there is to know finally destined to burn us?
On balance, I think not.
For a start, I’m not sure that there is as much information as we presume. With so many websites dedicated to the same topics, some of it is surely repeating or reiterating itself, and so cannot be said to be truly adding to the total. It’s also worth noting that at least 50% of the web is taken up by pictures of people in various degrees on undress engaged in activities ranging from the mildly titillating to the downright obscene. Interesting, for a plethora of reasons, but hardly educational.
Also, I have a suspicion that the whole thing has begun to eat itself (and I’m not referring to something I saw in the pictures I mentioned – although that would be impressive). I found out recently that Teletext has a website. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but Teletext is a website. In fact, it was the first ever website. A basic one, granted, but it’s pages of information navigated via a simple point and click interface (i.e. the buttons on your remote). That’s where we’re at now – we have websites of websites, like some technological tautology.
But the real clincher, the thing that convinces me that actually everything is going to be okay, is that I’m sure I can’t be the only one who has sat at a computer, online, with the collected knowledge of mankind literally at his fingertips, and thought, “God, I’m bored”. The Internet is, for me, the shining epitome of mankind’s achievement as a species – but sometimes, for whatever trivial reason, we just can’t be fucked with it.
But our poor attention spans will be our saviour from information meltdown. It is this simple flaw that will save us – and I think it amply demonstates the unique and beautiful contradictions that make up humanity. Ultimately, our feet of clay may well prove to be our salvation.
Peace. X
posted by Ben Schofield at 4:38 PM
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