To: D.Austin who wrote (28830 ) 4/18/1999 10:30:00 AM From: j g cordes Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 90042
I was thinking about the relationship between computer systems and humans. If one considers that the computer is evolving into an information delivery machine, much like a TV.. but through the complexity of the internet, then its apparent that the ratio of delivered information vs. self created information is growing by leaps and bounds on the delivery side. This poses some interesting problems. Problem one is how do we as individuals deal with the deluge of information? We have a fixed amount of time each day to read the paper, watch the news, respond and search out personal or business related data. A greater diversity of information delivery devices is being constructed in our environment. They include outdoor ads of every kind like billboards, more personal devices like TV, movies, newspapers, magazines, mail, radio and those nasty subliminal devices. With computers the delivery environment expands another level, to get inside and be a part of the content we negociate our lives with. Problem two is how does the information industry organize and present itself when each individual has less time and attention span? Less time and attention means restricting the time to respond and restricting the range of responses one can make. If they can't interview you for an hour, then the minute they do have has to be structured as yes/no answers. There isn't room for opinion, coloration or depth of response as yes/no answers are ususally pre-constructed to confirm or exclude something that's already been decided. So on the one hand we have an increasing diversity of information sources to respond to, while on the other hand we have the delivery business contracting its content in response to our ever decreasing attention span. Jim Jim