Vannevar Bush talked about the need for a machine that could be used like an external brain to hold information until until we needed it, and would allow us to exchange information readily. Now days we have our computers to store and exchange information, and this became our Information Age. But we are still unable to process it all. Contrary to helping, the free exchange of information via the technology of the internet only creates more stuff to process.

I suppose the way history has attempted to remedy information processing overload is to process a text, and then write down that analysis so that other people “don’t have to” process the same information. Analytical essays, editorials, and blogs are born. But ironically I suspect that this solution only creates more information that we will need to process (Are we now going to want to read “As We May Think” to find out more?). I don’t know about how people felt in the past, but especially true of now days in America, the more we are fed pre-digested analyses the more we are socially compelled to “think for ourselves” and possibly reject what others tell us anyway.

Maybe its like how we only use 10% of our brains. With so much information in the world, maybe the only way to avoid overload is to concede that we won’t learn it all. I’m sure I can only make it through literature courses by simply not doing most of the reading.