phyllostachys 78: Minute Tech 63 Show Transcript

63 - How do you organize information? The Brain.

Good morning, this is Alex Landefeld with episode 63 of the Minute Tech podcast -

coming to you for Monday January 14th, 2008

On this tech podcast about the broader meanings of technology, we'll mention:

- An Einstein Ring is Not a Berliner;
- First in a Series: How Do You Organize Information? The Brain.
- Recent Posts by Three Prolific Bloggers.

---------------

Minute Tech podcast is brought to you by:

Learn tai chi and qi gong with Pittsburgh-native Larry Tolbert. Having studied with Chen, Yang and Wu masters himself, sifu Larry Moves with the motion of the planet - e-mail leonardtolbert-[at]-hotmail-[dot]-com for more info.

And:

Ravelings by Carol. Pittsburgh-region classes in needle-craft - encompassing crochet, embroidery, knitting, & tatting, as well as an associated lace collection. For more information, contact Carol at carolb207-[at]-alltel-[dot]-net.

Tech News:

This is not a CES report...but rather from the American Astronomical Society, where a team of astronomers have found a double Einstein Ring, an astronomical phenomena based on the effect of gravitational lensing predicted by Albert Einstein in 1912. Einstein's idea of sources of extreme gravitational attraction, such as a galaxy, a massive star or a black hole, bending the light of more distant stellar objects was identified by him in 1912...though 24 years later in 1936 he suggested that humanity would never have the resolving capability to see such an effect. Now, due to very high power telescope-based cameras, such as that employed by the Hubble Space Telescope, hundreds of examples of gravitational lensing have been observed, including this most recent instance of a double Einstein ring. A double Einstein ring is a lensing of two distant stellar objects by a single closer object - in this case, astronomers have determined that the foreground galaxy producing the light-bending spectacle is some 3 billion light years distant from Earth, the inner ring is a galaxy some 6 billion light-years distant, and the outer ring is from a galaxy 11 billion light years distant. This is an enormously unusual finding...and makes one think about observers in those two more distant galaxies observing our Milky Way galaxy similarly lensed by the intervening objects.
http://presscue.com/node/38728
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_ring

Separately, and closer to home, David Biello of sciam.com reports that certain Acacia trees in the East African savanna's prefer to have animals foraging on them, and flourish more readily with the foraging incursions. Trees protected by an electrified fence have less foragers ravaging the trees, which one might assume would let the tree survive better...but these trees actually then harbor a different type of ant. The ant species inhabiting a tree seem to make a difference, as does the foraging: the ant species on the foraged acacias are attracted by the sweet tasting sap produced by the foraged trees...and in turn help to protect the trees from too much foraging by swarming over the foraging animals, acting as bodyguards to the trees. Without the foraging, however, the sap is not produced, and the protective ants aren't as likely to house themselves there, leaving room for a different type of ant that interacts with bark-boring beetles, contributing to slowly killing the trees. Stress in a biosystem, it appears, continues to produce life-giving results.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=of-ants-elephants-and-acacias

Tech Question:

How do you organize information? In this new series of explorations, I'm seeking to review and find ways that we all organize information. I'm embarking on a new information-intense career move, and I'll need all the help I can procure for managing disparate types of information so that I can service clients better with an ability to support older systems, help troubleshoot newer systems, and help to identify ways in which their situations can be improved. In order to do that, I seek to find ways of organizing information for myself, so that I can enjoy the process rather be overwhelmed by it.

The primary tool for organizing information has for millions of years been the human brain. We store information in brain-based repositories, calling up all sorts of informational bits from our memory matrix with all sorts of methods. Our brains are running our extraordinarily complex bodies while we learn to speak, spell, perform arithmetic, visualize, plan and implement. For many thousands of years the humans that have excelled have learned to utilize their brains for information storage, calculation, interaction and complex planning. Only relatively recently have human begun to rely upon tools for storing information outside of their brains. From the times that humans learned to paint in caves and scratch markings in stones, we've been involved in a race with information storage degradation, our ability to remember crucial bits of information and time.

Outside of the human brain, the single most powerful information storage device has been group storage, in which human's share information in such a way that information is spread throughout a populace, across many generations, allowing for that information to survive from one time period to another, from one fall to the following spring, through one dry season to the next, from one time of wellness to the next, and from one human life to the following.

Humans store information in groups, culturally, through stories, songs, instrumental music and instructional methods. Stories and songs allow for cultural, religious and practical details to be passed from one generation to another. Instrumental music helps to pass information and teach complex thought processes. And instructional methods help to teach others how to do practical things, from relining a packed dirt house floor & re-roofing the thatched roof to catching a rabbit or devising protections from marauding wildlife. These instructional methods are different from stories and songs in that they convey more immediate, more "practical" information, but they may overlap with the stories and songs in the ways in which they're transmitted, depending on the ingenuity of the teachers or instructional leaders.

Next, we'll touch on the initial ways in which humans have sought to store information outside of brains and collective consciousness.

Podcasting - Blogging News:

With the closing of the Consumer Electronics Show and the near-term opening of the MacWorld event, blogs and news sites have been on fire with rumor-mongering, relating to what new technologies Apple, Inc. has to reveal to us. Meanwhile, business and social media bloggers are moving along with their own agenda's, their own ideas, their own social directions.

Just to review a couple recent postings:
- Chris Brogan on his eponymously named blog is doing a series on the "Five Starter Moves" for using audio and video within the enterprise; (www.chrisbrogan.com)
- Jeremiah Owyang details his 10 suggestions for startups that are targeting enterprise businesses; (www.web-strategist.com)
- Book reviewer Dawn Papuga reviews Sebastian Faulks' Engleby on her lyriquetragedy.blogspot.com book-review blog.


That's all for today on Minute Tech podcast.
you can reach me at minutetech@gmail.com -
and my blog is at minutetech.blogspot.com

"Move with the motion of the planet - move with Taiji"

- An Einstein Ring is Not a Berliner;
- First in a Series: How Do You Organize Information? The Brain.
- Recent Posts by Three Prolific Bloggers.

Go to the Minute Tech iWeb page to subscribe or listen to this podcast: Minute Tech.

Interstitial music by Apple & Bre Pettis