“Information is not knowledge” – I don’t know who said that. And it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that it is true. We can gain knowledge, become much less knowledgeable if the information is flawed, or do nothing with it. We might also, keep returning to the same, but growing source of the same information. In the long run this becomes counter productive, even though returning to the same sources provides comfort.

Without the World Wide Web I have no idea what my views would be. Probably, much less enlightened, and much more certain. I may be happier, whilst at the same time much more outraged when my world view became challenged.

In many ways, the population can become much more educated and wiser. The opportunity is there. But returning to the things we like can leave important gaps of knowledge without us knowing.

“We don’t need to go to university now that we have Wikipedia” – I can’t recall who said this either.

The masses – and I include myself in that – are still missing the comprehensive education that the privileged have always enjoyed. Comprehensive schools, or “Comps” which are state schools seem to have been involved in the corruption of the word “comprehensive” in a similar way Facebook has “Friends”. The idea of mixed abilities in schools is and was a good idea in my view, but the image was of lower achievement and prospects. Other countries, with Finland as an example, take pride in offering the same chances to all children, but in the UK that never seemed to be the case.

Recently, I was listening to a Radio 4 discussion about universities. The question raised was whether or not the best universities should admit entrants with lower ‘A’ level results. It was a “money where your mouth is” argument. Ox-bridge is so good, they will produce great end results regardless. Or do they produce great results because they get to pick the highest achieving students in the first place. And logically, if the entrants with the best grades are so good, they can attend lower performing universities. Potentially, this is a win-win. But graduates from the best universities will have a much greater chance of the high paying jobs when they leave, and our society would never risk a social change like that.

We need to use our information filters and use them wisely.

End.

Actually, not the end yet. Information is growing at such a speed we are looking at using DNA to store it. There are two points here:

1. If you have the processing power, and the ownership of the data, this puts you at an advantage.
2. If a storage method and the means to access it, you have total control.

Perhaps, in the future the information won’t be available after all. Money, power, and freedom are at stake.

“You’re not a librarian, and this isn’t a library” – Rollerball 1977

That’s the end now!