On this episode of Spark: The Internet, Information and Revolution. Click below to listen to the whole show, or download the MP3 (runs 54:00).
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 54:35 — 50.1MB)
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The Information Revolution
Nora talks to Luciano Floridi, a philosopher of information who argues that we are entering a “Fourth Revolution”. Just as the Copernican, Darwinian, and Freudian revolutions changed how we see ourselves, the Information Revolution ushers in a view of ourselves as ‘nodes on a network’ instead of isolated individuals. (Runs 23:30)
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The Smartest Person in the Room is the Room
Nora also talks to author David Weinberger about his new book Too Big To Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That Facts Aren’t Fact, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room is the Room, which looks at the way the Internet is changing how information is organized, and what this change means for how we gain knowledge and make decisions. (Runs 26:11)
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Additional Links
- And don’t forget! Here’s Nora’s New Year’s Resolution Toolkit. Tips and tricks to help you be more focused and organized in 2012. Good luck!
- APM music used in this episode
- Main page photo by plaisanter
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I don't think I've ever heard such nonsense on the CBC as that put forward by your guest today, Professor Floridi, on the nature of, well, human existence, no less. However, what was truly disappointing was the inability of your host to challenge him on his vast generalizations about Plato, individualism, the supposed changing nature of the self and everything else under the sun. It's wonderful to hear the views of people working at the cutting edge of new issues, but when the interviewer isn't up to the challenge of an iimportant conversation, the result can be ludicrous.
I agree, and David Weinberger was no better. Where do you find these people? I've worked in the computer industry for 30 years, mainly for computer manufacturers, and most of the time I haven't a clue what your guests are talking about. They present their strange ideas and opinions as if they were fundamental truths.
By the way, Alan Turing had nothing to do with networks. He was a mathematician and cryptanalyst.
Yes, there was never any suggestion that Alan Turing was involved with networks. The Alan Turing reference was simply a nod to his role in the history of computer science.
I thought the program was great and the content really relevant to how information, knowledge, and our ability as a species to make better decisions is finally starting to take shape. Hopefully we will be able to build a decision model that better reflects the needs of humanity and takes the politicians out of the process.
Have you ever heard about the Turing test? Calling Alan Turing "a mathematician and cryptanalyst" is similar to calling Frank Lloyd Wright a skilled foreman.
Very interesting program Nora. The ideas presented challenged many commonly held notions about knowledge and expertise as we know it.
Glad you liked it. I think we're actually just beginning to come to terms with the way our use of the Internet is changing tons of norms, from how we think about knowledge to how we understand ourselves.
Agreed, and just in time for US Congress to vote on a bill that would effectively shut down the Internet as a venue of free exchange. This bill effects EVERYONE, not just US citizens.
On January 18th, Google, Amazon, Reddit and others plan to shut down their websites for twelve hours on that day to make people aware of the effects of Internet censorship. The vote on this bill comes January 29th. What you will see on that day at Reddit is a list of links on what you can do to oppose this bill.
http://blog.reddit.com/2012/01/stopped-they-must-…
Of course I have, although the Church-Turing thesis and the Turing machine would be better examples of his work in computing. My point was simply that network theory was not one of Turing's areas of research. Nora cleared up the misunderstanding.
wow sometimes the techy world needs to move their minds beyond the hardware! Consider what it does in the world of society after the electrons move into the 'verse.
Yes Andrea, it's a shame that the brilliant philosophers have to depend on knuckle-dragging engineers to make their toys work. Thank you for telling me how to improve my mind.
Hi Nora,
I caught the David Weinberger part of your broadcast. I was particularly intrigued with his treatment of the expansion of network power to hierarchical power and the description deteriorating information for decision-making in the process. This phenomenon is socially relevant now due to the Occupy Movement but to me has been relevant for quite some time due to having been a natural team builder, educator and often majorly in middle management situations where I have had to "take things up a hierarchy" of some design or another and tried to mitigate that effect repeatedly.
My observations about the micro social network knowledge exchange that where much actual brain work an perhaps even other physical sort of work occurs hardly gets acknowledged the more the decision-making gets 'distilled' and 'buttons' its way through the snakes & ladders. Merit, earnings and profit, seems to also get gleaned the more traditional the hierarchy – - so far.
As the more traditional critics of Occupy movement 'leadership' is that there 'seemed to be none' due to a 'more prolific network knowledge exchange design' and the 'multiple nodes of knowledge distribution' rather than a 'central hierarchical leadership model' with 'a single message' for 'the message takers' with which to run and assess.
I think that Nora is a great commenter and moderator so therefore I must agree with her on this one.
@Erna:- I was so taken about your comment that I re-listened to the piece as I wondered if we had listened to the same broadcast. The references were to help the listener see the points being made. Frankly I found the talk fascinating, perhaps a bit futuristic and flaky in parts, but well worth listening to.
As for Ms Young she, albeit backed by a team of good producers, is about as skilled an interviewer for this format as I have heard. She's also easy on the ears and judging by her avatar on the eyes as well.
@Curmudgeon A. Waters' comment "sometimes the techy world needs to move their minds beyond the hardware! " says it better than I can. Turing also by any definition was a computer scientist, the subject owes many earth shattering fundamental ideas to him.
It's a real pleasure to read such interesting debate like this one,indeed.Agree with you about that
I have a number of problems with Google. Mainly it just searches for constellations of keywords. In no sense does it understand my question. If I ask about Apple I will get a mixture of hits about the company and about the trees. I will find people asking my same question, not the answer. Every boob can pollute the net with false information or, more often, unimportant jabber. If we find no way to sift it out, the net will gradually become useless.
On the other hand, I have a website where I hold forth on how to program computers, how to buy computers, American politics, Canadian politics, religion, the environment, gay lib etc. 3000+ people a day come to listen to me. What a soapbox! Google sends these people to see me.