Floyd Fuller

The thing about this book, and almost every college or high school textbook I've ever seen (*such* an interesting word, textbook, if you think about it) is that it has more data than information. (Data is raw, unprocessed stuff, information is something that makes some sense, because it's been processed somehow.) It is weak, basically because of a failure of organization, and like most instances in which organization has failed, (by not, in any meaningful sense, existing), the deep problem is a confusion of *purpose*. (I might here mention the name 'Tom Ricks' or the word 'strategy', but that would lead me on a tangent.) That is to say, a book like this has two functions, and not one. ("It is not good to have many rulers, let there be one ruler, one king.") What are they? (Incidentally, or perhaps not so, there are usually at least as many authors--two or more, I mean, and 'or more' is quite a spacious phrase indeed--but then, academics have to find work somehow, right?) Well, first, (2nd), the book must teach the student something about the subject, and second, (1st), it must provide bits of data which the student can be asked to recall later for the purposes of testing. This is why we have in books like this, such a terminology fetish, in which the forest is lost in the trees, or, rather, the language in the words.

The difference between data and information, is, in some sense, a good analogy for the difference between schooling and education, although, sadly, I cannot trace out the reasons for that here. All I can say is that data is ultimately made by 0s & 1s, which numerically encodes a blink-y light being on or off. But information is not made by blink-y lights, but by something I might loosely call intelligence. (Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it is really that having information means you have the quality of 'being informed' and not the quality of 'intelligence', but I cannot say that I could map out this difference even if I had the space for it.) Although anyway perhaps the term 'intelligence' is more informal than mathematical...

But then, since even numbers and letters, so fundamentally different, can be exchanged, one for another--letters for numbers, in the form of Roman numerals, and in many other, though similar, ancient systems, and numbers--the 1s & 0s of digital data--for letters, (and, of course, for much else besides), in these our latter days. So I suppose there never really is any substitute for context...

And, if I may be forgiven for stretching out my hands a little farther afield, I, for one, can only imagine what bold new world might come into being if Computer, already having spoken once or twice with this "E-Thics", might also be introduced (at a party, perhaps?) with Epistemology, or, rather, with a theory of knowing, if I may be permitted to strip Philosophy of her useless Greek, to say nothing of arrogance...For if Episteme were introduced to Data and Information and Having Information and Intelligence, who knows what fruitful chaos might ensue?

(Wikipedia has data, but not information: it thinks that the President of Finland is more important than the Super Bowl. In which Narnia, I wonder?)

But, then, (mere, naked) data is the currency of mediocrity.

But, of course, it--Textbook (this new Cylon)--does try to be fun and relevant in its own, peculiar way. (What could be more FUN than an info-dump...or, rather, a data-dump!!!)

I mean, it all seems rather technically sound, especially in the authors' heads, if you follow, but sometimes they just talk as tho they were in a coma, and occasionally you have to read and re-read once or twice just because they needlessly muddle their words, speak abstractly for no real reason, and make things overly terminological, so that the text as a whole is like a little nest to lay the New Vocab Words in. Other times, it's just stupid to listen to, like this: "For example, the information displayed on a bank teller's computer terminal screen during an account balance inquiry is considered soft copy. {But not if it was a withdrawal, haha, ha.} Voice output, such as the telephone company's computerized directory assistance {is that the same one that the Ally Bank commercials dig into?} is another form of soft copy. {get ready for it} We depend on all sorts of output in our daily lives." And, right across from that--you know the stupid little boxes with the fake examples?--is a fake example of this generic successful businesswoman, Successfully Using TechnoBabble because she's so fwee. So, yeah. All sorts of output. Hmmm. It's like, did they make it that stupid on purpose, to prove something to someone? Look, Fred, technology is so great, that I can know jack shit about everything, except technology, and still get that cushy job! Well, score one against humanity, I guess. Really, though, seriously, if you think this book, or any of these books, are worth half--just half--of what kids like me have to pay for them, just try, no, really *just try* reading this one sentence to one of your friends, and see if you don't grow another head, or another four eyes, the way they'll look at you: "For example, the information displayed on a bank teller's computer terminal screen during an account balance inquiry is considered soft copy." Lucid prose, no? And yet, from the way they said it, you'd think they were Monsieur Karlos Marx, the Grand Bugger himself, right?

So, you know, you may call me a dreamer, but I think you're asleep at the wheel in the fast lane.

But, to be fair, it's occasionally useful, like the distinction they draw between a computer and a computerized device. Basically, a computer is your full-fledged compute-y friend that we all know and love, whereas a computerized device is like your average thing that didn't use to be a computer at all, but now he's dating her, and getting all her wierd ways planted in his head, so now in a few, specific, limited ways, he acts a little like a computer. Like at the mall, they have these Thirst Stations, it's like a vending machine that got turned into a computerized device, I think, and it does lots of cool stuff, like it has the polar bears from the Super Bowl commercials (you know that these students from Boston were rioting 'cause the Patriots lost, right?) and the only reason it has 'em is because of the technology which has digital data, which it processes and makes into animation. I think, smart peoples--back me up on this.

But you know that they just didn't talk about the polar bears the way I just did.

"It is common to see people listening to audio output."

(7/10)… (plus d'informations)