The Information Age

Sometimes I hear media personages refer to all this "knowledge" we have due to computers and the Internet. It's not knowledge; it's information. Having ready accessed to compiled information does not translate into knowledge until a person's mental processes interact with the information. Knowledge is in the head; information is in data banks. Knowledge is dynamic and mutable, while information is static although ever-accumulating.

In some ways, more access to information makes us dumber. "I have it at my fingertips; with a press of a few buttons, I can look up anything," so we never look it up. Why bother? we have it in our possession. Why memorize multiplication tables when we have a calculator? If we don't know what 8 times 7 is but can punch a few buttons to find the answer, we might discover that 8 times 7 is 56, but if our brains don't memorize (remember) it, we haven't really learned; we still don't know it.

It's a good thing, then, that punching "8x7=" into a calculator always results in 56. I rue the day when machines are made to learn; at that precise moment in time, they will begin to know more than we.

This my first post

Since I've never had my own blog before, I'm feeling self-conscious as I write my first post. Probably because the only audience I envision is myself--maybe I'm afraid to disappoint my only reader with remarkably pedestrian content.

So: let's envision a reader for this blog. First of all, someone who can read, notices spelling and grammar (particularly mistakes), and who is online looking for something interesting to read. Someone who wants thought-provoking content, not just "interesting"--he can find that at any number of websites. Someone who likes, or is mildly interested in, writing that exposes thought processes; good writing that can take a reader along for the ride is something I like.

I guess this description of an ideal reader is of myself, really. But it's just the kernel of a description; maybe I'll follow up on it later.