

What good is information? - RV86
http://aeon.co/magazine/technology/the-problem-with-too-much-information/?utm_source=Aeon+newsletter&utm_campaign=25a8687bde-Daily_Newsletter_11_September_20149_11_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-25a8687bde-68683293

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RV86
A highlight from the text: \-- When the internet arrived, it seemed to promise
a liberation from the boredom of industrial society, a psychedelic jet-spray
of information into every otherwise tedious corner of our lives. In fact, at
its best, it is something else: a remarkable helper in the search for
meaningful connections. But if the deep roots of boredom are in a lack of
meaning, rather than a shortage of stimuli, and if there is a subtle,
multilayered process by which information can give rise to meaning, then the
constant flow of information to which we are becoming habituated cannot
deliver on such a promise. At best, it allows us to distract ourselves with
the potentially endless deferral of clicking from one link to another. Yet
sooner or later we wash up downstream in some far corner of the web, wondering
where the time went. The experience of being carried on these currents is
quite different to the patient, unpredictable process that leads towards
meaning. \-- I'd imagine that most of us on HN could relate.

~~~
twobits
"if there is a subtle, multilayered process by which information can give rise
to meaning"

Because I lack meaning, and I am finding myself on this endless clicking hole
without end, any ideas/experiences/advice, by people here about how one gets
meaning? What's the process? How? Where? What? ..Thanks.

------
grownseed
Like with any other technologies, or in fact many establishments of Human
society, the tool and the use of the tool are two very different things.

Most religions, for instance, were designed to give people a set of values to
adhere to without necessarily understanding their purpose. This was very handy
in societies where education would be lacking. The only problem being that
when you don't understand or forget the purpose of a tool, you then start
glorifying the tool itself.

Similarly, the Internet is a means to an end, not an end in itself, unless you
let it be so, as I believe is the case with people who think the Internet is
responsible for their enternainment. The content is definitely there, but if
you can't make use of it or at least appreciate it, then it'll obviously
become boring. So in essence, it has nothing to do with the tool, but with the
person using it, or rather this evolving tool called "brain".

I think the Law of the instrument[0] is a concept that works both ways: when
all you can see is nails, then you'll always resort to the hammer.

[0]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_instrument](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_instrument)

