Information: the next level
Information is both the driver, and the distraction, of our existence. Information lays the foundations of our perceptions, and thus the basis of the perspectives we build on the world. Information is what creates impressions, strengthens beliefs, and eventually, what guides us to make choices, and tells us which actions to take.
Information tells us what is happening in the world around us, from our cousins back home, to our political choices from local to national, to the impacts of Afghanistan on the rest of the world. But because information reaches us through channels like the mass media that depend on the access, beliefs, and biases of others, information can steer us in detrimental, as well as useful, directions - even constructing for us false images of our lives, our actions, and our impact upon the world.
This means that information is a unique entity in our world. It is not like material objects, with qualities like mass or volume; it can not be held and gauged by weight or color. A picture is worth a thousand words, and either a picture or the words can change our lives.
It is not like the flows of energy that surround us, for a barrel of oil distributed among ten reporters gives them each a tenth of a barrel, while a story on oil can be given wholly to each.
Of course, that same story may become 10 different stories, depending on the knowledge and intention of the reporter. Information can be many things to many people. It spreads and multiplies, it impacts, it focuses or distracts: and it creates the understanding we have of the world. It can - and has - changed the perceptions, and the actions, of nations as well as individuals, thus helping to construct the flow of history and our world today. In fact, information is the very basis of the modern world today - our democracy, financial exchanges, politics, and culture depend on swift, accurate, dependable information flow.
False information induced the rejection of many voters at the polls in the Florida presidential election - possibly giving Bush instead of Gore the presidency. Misleading information and possibly deceptive information about energy giant Enron cost investors billions of dollars, financial scandal, and impacted the largest economy in the world. Information about us as individuals determines our credit rating, our job approval, our reputation. Information about the actions of our officials determine public opinion, and thus changes in national policy, budgetary spending, and the distribution of power. What would have changed if the public had not heard of Monica Lewinsky, or of Watergate? How much of a difference has it made that the public does not see the most censored stories each year?
The problem is, we don't know.
Information is also a tricky thing. We want as much information available about others (that's news), and as little information about ourselves (that's privacy). Information can help determine our security through hidden cameras - but can just as easily flip into the domain of Big Brother, manipulation, and information control. And how we draw the line between these two - and how we know others are not crossing the line - is also based on information.
At the least, it is wise to acknowledge the primacy of information in modern affairs, and to safeguard its essential qualities of integrity, accuracy, and truthful context. On these the stability of our political, economic, environmental, and cultural systems rest. This section, therefore, is to help you, the reader, stay abreast of the meta-topic of 'information flow', to track its implications and impacts both personal and global.