Information and communication constraints

En-joying the World through En-joying Oneself (Part #3)

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Ignorance-based civilization?: As noted above, cognition is increasingly constrained by information overload, attention deficiency, and limited capacity to communicate knowledge and insight effectively -- especially between relatively incommensurable worldviews. Despite the enthusiasm articulated by James Gleick (The Information: a history, a theory, a flood, 2011), all are therefore rendered increasingly ignorant relative to the amount of knowledge "available" to which meaningful access is inhibited, as separately argued (Governance through ignorance in a knowledge-based society, 2011).

The point was made that global civilization is necessarily "ignorance-based" to a significant degree, however much the emphasis is placed on the availability of knowledge and the investment in "intelligence gathering". Factors include:

• physical access facilities (geography, electronic connectivity, etc)
• cost (commercial constraints, most notably imposed through copyright), especially when increasingly subject to austerity measures
• restrictions (most notably commercial and governmental secrecy)
• unfamiliar, complex or alienating "language" and form of presentation

Again, as noted above, of particular concern is the partial connectivity of elements of knowledge, thereby losing integrative insight dependent on a systemic perspective. In this sense individuals and collectivities are increasingly "cocooned", however this may be described (Dynamically Gated Conceptual Communities, 2004). Consistent with the argument regarding "grooming" is the degree to which that cocoon is externally reinforced through the cultivation of individual "filter bubbles" (Eli Pariser, The Filter Bubble: what the Internet is hiding from you, 2011).

Ironically elicited meaning is then a product of a much-deprecated process of "cherry picking" from the mass of information, perhaps even restricted to "low-hanging fruit" -- in the light of preferential biases ("ripeness", "colour", etc), as separately argued (Systems of Categories Distinguishing Cultural Biases, 1993). This has long been illustrated in the arbitrary distinguishing and naming of constellations from a particular "worldview".

Questionable communication: This complex of conditions raises questions with regard to:

• why is communication undertaken and with what expectations? (Communication with Whom, about What, Where and Why? 2008; Attitude Entrainment: Communicating thrival skills and insights, 2004)
  
  
• with whom is it possible to consider viable communication and with what degree of "existence" and identity is to be attributed to them, as separately discussed (Cultivating Global Strategic Fantasies of Choice, 2010)
  
  
• whether it is possible to expect the emergence of viable consensus and coherence -- or the possibility of "delivering" it? This is separately discussed (The Consensus Delusion: Mysterious attractor undermining global civilization as currently imagined, 2011) and most notably by Erik J. Olsson (The Impossibility of Coherence; Against Coherence: Truth, Probability, and Justification, 2005).
  
  
• what can any such communication be expected to "mean" for either party and with what implications? (Comprehension of Appropriateness, 1986)
  
  
• what "language" is used in the effort to communicate and with what level of sophistication? (In Quest of a Strategic Pattern Language: a new architecture of values, 2008; Governance through Pattern Language: creative cognitive engagement contrasted with abdication of responsibility, 2006; 12 Complementary Languages for Sustainable Governance, 2003; Cultivating new conceptual languages, 1995; Developing a Metaphorical Language for the Future, 1994)
  
  
• whether the effort to handle information overload through limited attention span is affecting the manner in which people are able to think, individually and collectively, in unforeseen ways yet to be fully determined (Re-Emergence of the Language of the Birds through Twitter? 2010). The problematic dimensions have notably been explored by Nicholas Carr (The Shallows: how the internet is changing the way we think, read and remember, 2010), Larry Rosen (The Psychology of Technology, 2010) and by William Powers (Hamlet's BlackBerry: building a good life in the digital age, 2011).
  
  
• what is the metaphoric surface on which "descriptive" information / knowledge can be appropriately "written" (enscribed), namely whether the emphasis on "points" and "lines" is adequate to articulation and comprehension of "global" complexity, notably in the light of the greater relevance of toroidal forms to mapping associations, as argued by Michael Schiltz and separately discussed (Beyond the plane: form and medium in terms of the calculus of indications, 2006). In contrast to the plane surface of a simple matrix, a torus holds an interesting position in the discussion of the relationship between form and medium as fundamental to advanced theories of communication. This notably featured in the work of Niklas Luhmann (Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, 1997) and discussed by Michael Schiltz (Form and Medium: a mathematical reconstruction, Image [&] Narrative, 6, 2003) in relation to the calculus of indications of George Spencer-Brown (Laws of Form, 1969/1994). Schiltz notes that form/medium is "the image for systemic connectivity and concatenation", as described by Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela. Schiltz notes, that the notion of "space" is the key to reflexivity appropriate to any discussion of form and medium.
  
  
• how collective memory can be enabled and enhanced, especially with respect to the longer term (Societal Learning and the Erosion of Collective Memory, 1980; Minding the Future: a thought experiment on presenting new information, 1980; Engaging Macrohistory through the Present Moment, 2004)

The argument is usefully illustrated with respect to "language" by physicist Richard Feynman, asked to explain magnetism in a much-cited interview, urged the BBC interviewer to take it on faith (video). He finally stated:

I really can't do a good job, any job, of explaining magnetic force in terms of something else that you're more familiar with because I don't understand it in terms of anything else that you're more familiar with. (cited in 20 Things You Didn't Know About... Magnetism, Discover Magazine, July-August 2011).

As mentioned above, all such factors suggest the problematic risk of a radical form of memetic singularity (Emerging Memetic Singularity in the Global Knowledge Society, 2009).

Info-shacks vs Info-silos: It follows that where greater competence and expertise are only available "elsewhere", with a degree of investment that is considered impossible or unjustified "here and now", the individual is then forced to rely on immediately accessible knowledge resources -- however crude and inadequate. As such, these may well be deprecated from "elsewhere".

This "information situation" -- effectively "permanent" -- is appropriately equivalent to individuals and their families in "information shacks" (or "kno-shacks") in slums and refugee camps with many others, whatever the degree of external assistance and promises for the future. There is a splendid irony to this necessity for many to "rediscover the wheel"-- much as it is deprecated by those better informed -- given the metaphoric use of the wheel as the most fundamental symbol of integration.

The information "habitat" as a metaphor may also be used to question assumptions relating to the "higher" education characteristic of greater knowledge -- when its acquisition can be enabled. This may be usefully compared with rising to higher floors in a building offering wider perspectives, as in the institutionalization in "skyscrapers" of education and its applications. Such elevated perspectives typically ignore the challenge for those on the ground and their need to navigate the dynamics of a more complex terrain in order to survive, most notably through acquisition of "streetwise" skills.

The role of authority with respect to information habitats can also be clarified using both the shack and skyscraper metaphors. In the former case, irrespective of prescribed "health and safety" building codes, the capacity to require and ensure their implementation in practice is highly limited. The requisite materials and skills are simply not available from "elsewhere". In the case of the skyscrapers, effectively constructed according to such prescriptions, the capacity to engage with those obliged to live "on the street" is very limited (exemplified by the expression "information silos"). The latter may well have greater ability to roam widely across the urban terrain through "no go" areas, as understood from a "higher perspective".

"Higher-education" vs "Meta-education": The point has been made in contrasting "higher education" with "meta-education" (¿ Higher Education ∞ Meta-education ? 2011). It is also made with respect to "ascent" and "escape" metaphors associated with acquisition of spiritual insight (Clues to 'Ascent' and 'Escape' 2002; TechGnosis: gnostic escape in a knowledge universe, 2007). Such questionable understandings of "higher" can then be related to reaching "escape velocity" in the quest for the advancement of knowledge (Entering Alternative Realities -- Astronautics vs Noonautics: isomorphism between launching aerospace vehicles and launching vehicles of awareness, 2002). The challenge to comprehension can also be expressed in terms of quality and as to whether, like wine, it "travels well" or not (Musings on Information of a Higher Quality, 1996).

It is a curious feature of happiness and enjoyment, as discussed below, that it effectively defies the above information constraints. It is a necessarily a direct and unmediated experience.

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