Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 28, 1995 TAG: 9504280020
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT TURCOTTE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Popular belief is that a person who was born blind and then gains his sight will run through the streets exclaiming that he can see! Interviews with those who could see for the first time, however, indicate they had difficulty dealing with all this new data flowing into their brains.
Interviewers concluded that sight is a pleasure we learn from birth, first introduced when observing light/dark distinctions, then fuzzy likenesses and, later, detailed ``motion pictures.'' Over time, we progressively develop the ability to see, process only important details around us and mentally filter out everything else. Almost all of the newly sighted people were so overwhelmed that they preferred to be blind again!
Similarly, information overload is a problem we will face from now on. This difficulty is so critical in the computer industry that we feel every day is a mental ``fire hosing.'' That is, you either drink what is coming at you or you drown trying. I agree that the world is moving away from rote memorization and toward using transitory information, or as you stated in your letter, the new focus on ``what do we need to know to solve this problem?'' Certainly, the pace of technological change is so fast that commonly, ``If you have it memorized, it is obsolete.''
Using magnetic-resonance-imaging movies, psychologist Walter Schneider, professor at the University of Pittsburgh, has found that in a normal half-day we take in 1 billion characters of information - or about two gigabytes per day! To help us deal with the overwhelming raw data that can be electronically delivered to us, computer scientists are developing fuzzy logic. Using this technology, we will tell our computer to filter data into information for us (Star Trek-like) so that we get only the essential facts.
``So much for novel ideas from unusual sources,'' you said in your letter. Hopefully that will not be true. I have found several sources on the Internet where I can go to relax and find wacky ideas. Simply, new technology should free us to effectively explore more territory faster. Ideally, we will not get so focused that we forget to maintain a broad set of interests.
All of that is to say this: Gutenburg and his fantastic printing press broke the information barrier of expensive handwritten texts. Today we are on the doorstep of the Information Age, again facing the possibility of creating a society of information haves and have-nots.
It took questioning hippies to critically examine what would be possible if we broke traditional thinking. The legacy of the '60s generation will be the Information Age. Now the same generation that practiced a philosophy of communal inclusion may exclude those without computer access from basic democratic processes. Like the coming electronic vote. If that comes true, then the have-nots will not enjoy other technology benefits either.
When Ben Franklin talked about Philadelphians in his autobiography, he said visitors remarked that the city's residents were very learned. Franklin attributed this to his efforts to establish our nation's first library in his city. At the doorstep of the Information Age, we are again presented with Franklin's opportunity. We can be seen as a learned and progressive community when we find ways through our schools and libraries to technologically expose ourselves during Information Age infancy.
Jim, as much as I like computers and the Information Highway, they are not panaceas. I talked today to a local pastor whose church runs a school. He lamented that today's students lack critical basics education, thinking capacities and decision-making skills. He observed that many students know how to produce beautiful computer-generated presentations that are content-free.
Nothing substitutes for educating our youth. If we think education is expensive, we could try ignorance. Perhaps it is logical to plan early in the Information Age to educate our have-nots about how to productively use computers and communications opportunities.
We face hard problems poised to make already bad situations worse. How do we balance, for instance, the library's meager book-purchasing budget against spending for quickly obsolete information technology? Perhaps the prudent approach is for small purchases of technology now, to train employees a bit at a time and to let the technology prove itself. After all, a few computers with slow data communications access are better than none at all.
Our community must be progressive enough to help data-hungry residents to see early and often. We must make a technology commitment before the rest of the world progresses too far along the swiftly moving technology time line, leaving us behind. In a democracy, people will theoretically speak up and be heard on important issues. We must trust that one important issue will be how to deal with information have-nots. When we can, our enlightened neighbors will run along the Information Highway proclaiming, ``I can see!''
I hope you and Debbie are doing as well as we are.
-ROBERT
Robert Turcotte has been in the computer business for more than 15 years, and is a volunteer in the Roanoke city school system.
by CNB