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Knowledge Overload or Internet Lazy?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the learn-things-dangit dept.

Dareth writes "Are we being overloaded by knowledge? Is the number of sources growing faster than we can keep up with them? These questions are posed by this article in USA Todays's tech section The article seems to suggest we need 'better technology to cope with the problems better technology creates.'" From the article: "With a generation growing up expecting everything on the Internet, libraries, non-profit organizations and leading search companies like Yahoo and Microsoft are committing hundreds of millions of dollars collectively to scan books and other printed materials so they can be indexed and retrieved online. HarperCollins Publishers even announced plans in mid-December to digitize its vast catalog."

10 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Or.. by Bananatree3 · · Score: 4, Funny

    You could say the heck with it all, join the Amish community and say the electron doesn't exist.

    1. Re:Or.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      For the record, the Amish community knows about the electron but CHOOSES not to have much to do with it.

    2. Re:Or.. by HD+Webdev · · Score: 3, Funny

      For the record, the Amish community knows about the electron but CHOOSES not to have much to do with it.

      The Amish people can speak for themselves here at slashdot, thank you very much.

      --
      This is not a dream, not a dream...we are transmitting from the year 1-9-9-9.
  2. from the article by peculiarmethod · · Score: 4, Funny

    "It may take better technology to cope with the problems better technology creates."

    Nah, that logic is all screwed up. We obviously need to engineer and release silicon eating rats to control the ever dispersing technology, and rat eating cats, then cat eating dogs, and finally, open a lot of vietnamese restraunts everywhere technology was over-taking everyday human existance.

    --
    ** "It's not my job to stand between the people talking to me, and the ones listening to me." -- Pego the Jerk
  3. Overload? by drdanny_orig · · Score: 4, Funny

    I gotta believe that it takes very little information to overload the average reader of USA Today.

    --
    .nosig
  4. Information overload? by dangitman · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's a feature, not a bug. HarperCollins should change their name to HyperCollins, and include a free sachet of insant coffee or methamphetamine with each book.

    --
    ... and then they built the supercollider.
  5. Re:If Google can't find it... by HermanAB · · Score: 4, Funny

    If you can't find yourself in Google, do you exist?

    --
    Oh well, what the hell...
  6. Just remember.... by rune2 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hard work often pays off after time but laziness aways pays off now...

  7. Re:Information overload a diagnosed problem? by pipingguy · · Score: 3, Funny


    Even the wife acknowledges my memory is worse now than it was 10 years ago

    I'm going to assume by that that you mean *your* wife. If this is the case, don't bother to go looking for other reasons for your loss of short-term memory. Dishonestly responding, "no" to the question, "Do I look fat in this?" 20,000 times not only undermines one's credibility (due to forced living in a fantasy world), it also leads to early senility (due to your brain overloading the truth/error correction circuit).

  8. Re:If Google can't find it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    http://www.google.no/search?hl=en&q=%22anonymous%2 0coward%22

    I am googleable and therefore i am