Michael Lissack The information explosion has outrun the nation’s competence to make sense of the deluge of data in forms ranging from the offerings of the mass media to the esoteric products of universities and think tanks. On one hand, problems, opportunities, and the environments in which they appear are becoming more complex. On the other hand, to survive this explosion of complexity, people cultivate specialties. They want to be experts at some- thing. Yet the sheer volume of the data amassed makes almost inevitable the reduction of our focus to what is in the end a very narrow endeavor. If we are to retain any kind of perspective on the role of humankind in the future, we must sometimes stand back and view the landscape, not merely a tree. In our focus on individual trees we allow others to steal what is rightfully ours and our children’s. All for want of a better way of thought - a new mechanic of thinking. How did conditions get to be like this? • The world has become far more complex than it was when our gov- ernmental institutions were first developed. • There is a distinct limit to the quantity of discrete pieces of infor- mation each of us is equipped to deal with at any one time. • If we are capable of dealing with complexity through an abbreviated simplification we will choose to do so. • We opt to simplify by labeling, accepting symbols instead of seeking greater understanding through synthesis. • We find it hard to deal with second order effects and impossible to deal with multiple order effects. Information is power, a world currency upon which fortunes are made and lost. And we are in a frenzy to acquire it, firm in the belief that more information means more power. But just the opposite is proving to be the case. The glut has begun to obscure the radical distinctions between data and information, between facts and knowledge. Our perception channels are short-circuiting. We have a limited capacity to transmit and process images, which means that our
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