In Other Words

Managing the Information Torrent

An article in the economist about using unobtrusive gadgets to monitor important information about the outside world in your own home gives us an idea of what is to come. These people apparently want to make it possible to know information without having to read or look at screens, instead they want to colour code objects and such.

A good idea, considering how much information is out there to confuse us. Of course it still doesn’t do what we really need and that is to have it intelligently sort information so that it figures out what we need to hear and tells us, rather then forcing us to sit down and program these devices.

Computers have given us unrivalled amounts of information, now they have to help us sort that information for easier access. Yes, making the information less obtrusive and more intuitively understandable would be nice, but that only deflects the smallest percentage of the informational torrent. What we need is something that will deflect the great majority of the information we don’t want and to give us access to the information we do want.

It will doubtlessly happen, it is just a question of time.

posted by Symbol @ 22.9.04