The post-theoretical age
Brian Eno
It feels, at last, that the 21st century has arrived. Until recently we’ve been at the end of the 20th, but now it’s different. Obama, of course, but something else as well.
There’s been a conversation going on—a wider, more inclusive and better-informed conversation than humankind has ever experienced before. You may have noticed the explosion of conferences, seminars, blogs, chats and twitters. What’s it all about? Two recent books—Paul Hawken’s Blessed Unrest and Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody— sounded the alert. It’s about the unexpected synergy of information. Informed, data-rich communication is reaching critical mass.
In the absence of data, you theorise. In an abundance, you just need to do the maths. And, because of all those super-efficient search engines, we share more and more data. Data dissolves ideology.
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