World drowning in a rising sea of information [Guardian UK]

[truthisfreedom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1075449,00.html

World drowning in a rising sea of information

Neil McIntosh
Saturday November 1, 2003
The Guardian

Academics in California have confirmed what every office worker in the land has known for years: we are drowning in a rising sea of information.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, say the amount of information being generated worldwide has increased by 30% each year since 1999, and that the amount being stored has doubled in that time.

That means 800 megabytes of data - roughly equivalent to 800 books - was created for every man, woman and child in 2002.

<snip>

And William Dutton, director of the Oxford Internet Institute, also warned the numbers used in the report could be a little misleading. "Clearly the report puts some numbers on an essentially valid trend," he said. "But it lacks some base validity by measuring it in bits - the complete works of Shakespeare is less than three high-resolution photographs."

<snip>

[RandomKoolzip]

1. Add spyware and the Patriot act into the equation...

And we will really be "underwater".

[Voltaire99]

2. More is less

Information isn't understanding.

[Panda1]

3. Well said

And a lot of this information is false. BFEE propaganda alone probably accounts for a great deal of it. Tripe is tripe in small and great quantities.

[jonoboy]

4. and when it's dumbed down

like Fox news no wonder we switch off.

[girl gone mad]

5. We know more and more about less and less..

until we know everything about nothing.

[teryang]

6. The collection of information and lists

...by those with the resources and organization to do it is source of power. The proliferation and concommitant witholding of data is a tactic to overwhelm used by corporations to hold the population in thrall. The government is now adopting this corporate technique.

When one speaks to a "consumer service representative" of the the typical corporate exploiter, one has to get through a phalanx of computer generated queries meant to deflect, then if you are persistant enough, you speak to a person who refuses to identify themself and whose position and institutional status is unknown. (this is a legal defense) Generally, these service people are unresponsive but your call is being recorded for use against you in the unlikely event that you would have the stupidity and temerity to sue a billion dollar entity over a mistake, deceit or fraud involving a relatively paltry amount. Multiply the use of this technique by the hundreds of thousands daily. In this manner, the population is rendered ineffectual and exploitable.

Let's say the damage is so great or the complainants so numerous that suits occur. The multi-billion dollar corporations collect data on you literally from the day you were born. Every corporate and government record is mined. Virtually every person who ever knew you in your life is contacted. The object is to find derogatory information of every type. Hopefully you will be persuaded to drop your foolish and expensive complaint.