Are you an information god?
Saturday, September 21, 2002 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News
How many of you are finding a growing gap between the net savvy and those who don't spend much time or at least don't use the Internet as an efficient way of gathering information?
This article talks about the growing gap between the "information gods" and "information mortals". The net is a real liberating mechanism. You have the ability to talk to exactly the kinds of people you want regardless of location (whereas in "real life" their physical location has more to determine whether you hang out with them than common interests).
This article talks about the growing gap between the "information gods" and "information mortals". The net is a real liberating mechanism. You have the ability to talk to exactly the kinds of people you want regardless of location (whereas in "real life" their physical location has more to determine whether you hang out with them than common interests).
bakerstreet
Reply #2 Saturday, September 21, 2002 6:48 PM
Reply #2 Saturday, September 21, 2002 6:48 PM
i dunno if the gap is getting wider. I greater percentage of the people I know now would be considered 'information gods', as compared to a couple of years ago.
I have been struck lately, though, with a read, tangible fear. I try to imagine 1980. Not in terms of games and techy-toys, but in terms of not having to wonder about anything. No fact is further from me than my keyboard at present. If I did lose my internet connection, I could at a minimum get to a library or kinkos fairly quickly. The thoughts of being completely cut-off though, inspire the kind of angst you would find in a William Gibson novel (a kind of Chiba City blues). I really don't know how I would handle not being able to educate myself instantly when I need to know something, and I don't like the feeling at all.
IMDB alone is a resource that I would be crippled without. News, weather, health, Ebay, vast tutorial resources, programming resources, do-it-yourself resources. These are somehow internalized in me now, and it is a gut reaction when I consider doing without. Maybe I need to.
I have been struck lately, though, with a read, tangible fear. I try to imagine 1980. Not in terms of games and techy-toys, but in terms of not having to wonder about anything. No fact is further from me than my keyboard at present. If I did lose my internet connection, I could at a minimum get to a library or kinkos fairly quickly. The thoughts of being completely cut-off though, inspire the kind of angst you would find in a William Gibson novel (a kind of Chiba City blues). I really don't know how I would handle not being able to educate myself instantly when I need to know something, and I don't like the feeling at all.
IMDB alone is a resource that I would be crippled without. News, weather, health, Ebay, vast tutorial resources, programming resources, do-it-yourself resources. These are somehow internalized in me now, and it is a gut reaction when I consider doing without. Maybe I need to.
Glowdark
Reply #3 Saturday, September 21, 2002 9:47 PM
Reply #3 Saturday, September 21, 2002 9:47 PM
Great article,only point missed were the owners of puters who have no idea how to use a search engine.Here in Ford Motor Land, all employees were given new puters a couple years ago, and last night my neighbor came by to ask just what EMail was........always has been gap between informed and uninformed, its just more noticeable now
Frogboy
Reply #4 Saturday, September 21, 2002 11:42 PM
Reply #4 Saturday, September 21, 2002 11:42 PM
Well said Bakerstreet.
I was thinking the same thing the other night. When my wife and I were deciding how to finance our houses I was able to use all sorts of great tools on the net to figure out the numbers.
But in 1980, I'd have to go the library or try to contact someone personally to see if they could help.
I was thinking the same thing the other night. When my wife and I were deciding how to finance our houses I was able to use all sorts of great tools on the net to figure out the numbers.
But in 1980, I'd have to go the library or try to contact someone personally to see if they could help.
SuperheroCanadian
Reply #5 Sunday, September 22, 2002 2:38 PM
Reply #5 Sunday, September 22, 2002 2:38 PM
"help me with my homework" i need pictures for my report" blah blah blah, i get it all the time, i try and show ppl how to do it and they go "but u can do it" ppl don want to do stuff themselves, they want the ppl who know how to do it for them, its getting pathetic
dukeofchutney
Reply #6 Sunday, September 22, 2002 4:22 PM
I have no problem with your point, Brad; I understand the angle your coming from and you are right in what you say.
I just have a problem with you calling these people "gods". To confer "god" status on a certain percentile of the general world populace because of their ability to manipulate a search engine or other news source is er, um, how shall I put this...asking for trouble...?
What did Benjamin Franklin say? There only two certainties in life, death and taxes. Gods, unlike you and me and everyone else who frequents this Message Board, are not subject to either...
Reply #6 Sunday, September 22, 2002 4:22 PM
I have no problem with your point, Brad; I understand the angle your coming from and you are right in what you say.
I just have a problem with you calling these people "gods". To confer "god" status on a certain percentile of the general world populace because of their ability to manipulate a search engine or other news source is er, um, how shall I put this...asking for trouble...?
What did Benjamin Franklin say? There only two certainties in life, death and taxes. Gods, unlike you and me and everyone else who frequents this Message Board, are not subject to either...
Mister Perky
Reply #7 Sunday, September 22, 2002 6:20 PM
Reply #7 Sunday, September 22, 2002 6:20 PM
I dunno - why just the other evening I was speaking with the Lord, and He told me that he visited this Message board frequently. Said he was thinking of skinning Heaven! Really!
-- Perky
-- Perky
bakerstreet
Reply #8 Sunday, September 22, 2002 7:35 PM
Reply #8 Sunday, September 22, 2002 7:35 PM
MarkL. In agroup of 20 or so people, each vying as we all do for our share of wealth and power, what sort of edge would you consider a solid command of the internet to be at this point? Granted, God is a stretch, but the kind of sublimated command of information that some have would make them immediately superior in a lot of functions.
At the moment it is pretty static in that I need a box, keyboard and monitor. In 20 years, though, when my box is the size of a walkman, my moniter is projected onto my retina, and I can speak (or even think) my commands, what then? It will be very hard to differentiate external and internal intelligence at that point.
God will, of course, have that Wisdom thing, but we've muddled through with a desperate lack of it for the last ten thousand years or so, and he seems to keep taking up the slack for us
At the moment it is pretty static in that I need a box, keyboard and monitor. In 20 years, though, when my box is the size of a walkman, my moniter is projected onto my retina, and I can speak (or even think) my commands, what then? It will be very hard to differentiate external and internal intelligence at that point.
God will, of course, have that Wisdom thing, but we've muddled through with a desperate lack of it for the last ten thousand years or so, and he seems to keep taking up the slack for us
Frogboy
Reply #10 Sunday, September 22, 2002 9:02 PM
Reply #10 Sunday, September 22, 2002 9:02 PM
https://www.joeuser.com/Articles/InformationGodsSrikeBack.html
I've written a follow-up on it. I fully admit using the term "gods" is not politically correct. It was meant tongue in cheek.
I've written a follow-up on it. I fully admit using the term "gods" is not politically correct. It was meant tongue in cheek.
dukeofchutney
Reply #11 Monday, September 23, 2002 4:22 PM
Reply #11 Monday, September 23, 2002 4:22 PM
Brad,
Point taken, it's just a pity it wasn't more blindingly obvious!
Judging by your follow up blog, it looks like you've stirred a small hornets nest.
You are a brave man, sir. But I fear it's still called "rushing in where angels fear to tread".
Nevertheless, I follow your argument and agree with much of what you've said, including your follow-up conclusion were you said: "Information gods are people who have become experts as acquiring information quickly and turning that information into useful knowledge as fast as possible."
Although I personally haven't reached that level of assimilation, I work with 2 or 3 guys who display phenomenal abilities in this area you've written about - off the Net, out of books they've ordered over the net etc, etc, (they're programmers who are driving our company's software forward into .Net, SQL Server, XML and other areas of technology I haven't even had the chance to dream about yet, never mind read up on).
So the ability is there for the taking, we just have to find the will (and maybe the time) to take it.
Point taken, it's just a pity it wasn't more blindingly obvious!
Judging by your follow up blog, it looks like you've stirred a small hornets nest.
You are a brave man, sir. But I fear it's still called "rushing in where angels fear to tread".
Nevertheless, I follow your argument and agree with much of what you've said, including your follow-up conclusion were you said: "Information gods are people who have become experts as acquiring information quickly and turning that information into useful knowledge as fast as possible."
Although I personally haven't reached that level of assimilation, I work with 2 or 3 guys who display phenomenal abilities in this area you've written about - off the Net, out of books they've ordered over the net etc, etc, (they're programmers who are driving our company's software forward into .Net, SQL Server, XML and other areas of technology I haven't even had the chance to dream about yet, never mind read up on).
So the ability is there for the taking, we just have to find the will (and maybe the time) to take it.
feline
Reply #12 Tuesday, September 24, 2002 8:16 AM
Reply #12 Tuesday, September 24, 2002 8:16 AM
feline decides to ask the other obvious question
where do you start learning this?
over the years on the net i have found that finding useful and meaningful information on a given topic can be quite tricky.
google (etc) are lovely, if you can work out what to call the question.
but when you arent sure of the correct wording, then were do you start?
either there is some trick i am missing, or you already have to know enough to ask the right questions in the first place.
where do you start learning this?
over the years on the net i have found that finding useful and meaningful information on a given topic can be quite tricky.
google (etc) are lovely, if you can work out what to call the question.
but when you arent sure of the correct wording, then were do you start?
either there is some trick i am missing, or you already have to know enough to ask the right questions in the first place.
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Reply #1 Saturday, September 21, 2002 12:38 PM
I like to think of myself as more an "Elite Research Hunter/Gatherer"
Not quite a goddess, but then not quite mortal
My motto is "if I can't find it, it ain't out there!"