Is the Information Age Sustainable?

Is the Information Age sustainable? This is not a question for technology, but for us. We have more and more information, but less and less understanding. There are plenty of books that point out we have a problem, but few that point towards a path with a solution. Back in 1989, Richard Wurman wrote in Information Anxiety about the gap between “what we understand and what we think we should understand.” But now we should wish for mere anxiety as the problem. In Nicholas Carr’s recent book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, he provides evidence that using the Internet rewires our brain to help us multitask – but weakens our brain for deep thinking and comprehension. And in beginning to answer the question of sustainability, Mark Bauerlein captures the concern in The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future.

The Explanation Age is where we stop the nonsense of unlimited amounts of data with very limited access to the explanations. Instead of finding the descriptions and then digging for the decisions, we flip the approach. But this change entails more than technology or the user interface, it requires rethinking our philosophy of mind. This is the real change that will come after the Information Age – if we have enough “deep thinking” left to get us there. Please join the discussion. There is a lot to do. Educational reform, business innovation, and transparency in policy-making are not disconnected topics. They are directly related with the right philosophy of mind. Sense-making has no domain barriers. Making it the user interface will do more than create a new web site – it will produce The Explanation Age.