Infog

From SaschaWiki

In the field of socioeconomics, the phenomenon of infog (or the inverse comprehension effect) explicitly refers to the apparent inverse correlation between information and understanding beyond a certain point. As neither of these terms can be precisely defined, the strict definition of infog is regarded as unscientific by many hard scientists. Infog is sometimes summarised with the saying "information is useless without knowledge". Infogology is the academic study of the phenomenon.

Infog is the principle behind the popular Public Relations principles of No truth, No lies and First, entertain.

Infogology as a partial belief system is strongly associated with relativism and the freedom of information movement.

Contents 1 Three-state infomodel 2 Infogology 3 Primary findings of infog 4 Examples of infog 5 Attitudes to infog 6 Infog as a social disease

Three-state infomodel

A proper understanding of infog requires at least a cursory understanding of the three-state infomodel. This model (first proposed in the early 2010s) posits that info can be found in three primary forms: data, information and knowledge. The hypothetical infosubstance cogter was once proposed as being the substance these states are states of, but it was never accepted. When info replaced information as the nom for the vague notion of data and knowledge, the longer information was retained to describe the specific state.

• Data is the iconic representation of info in physical form, sometimes referred to as the storage form. Data is interpreted and conceptualised into information when it is accessed. Data which cannot be interpreted due to the lack of a suitable cipher is useless until a cipher can be obtained. By definition in the three-state model, data cannot be understood or comprehended. A string of alphanumeric characters is the classic example of data.

• Information is the conceptual representation of info within the human consciousness. Information can be conceived, which is to say the possessor of information is generally aware that they possess it and is capable of encoding it back into data. Information which is interpreted and then encoded without any process of comprehension is said to be parroted. Information can be comprehended into knowledge. Facts are the classic examples of information, although concepts are as important, if not more so.

• Knowledge is the conceptual understanding of information within the human consciousness. Knowledge as a concept is more vague than the previous two states. In the literature is it typified by insight into the information one possesses, which is to say the option and ability to draw correct and reasonable inferences from it. Concrete and uncontroversial examples of knowledge are rare. It has been proposed that decision-results are a form of knowledge which can be studied, and most research into the area has followed this path.

(Info which has been interpreted but not yet conceptualised and is therefore partway between data and information is usually referred to as postdata, although sometimes also preconcept. Words and images are the best-known examples of postdata.)

Infogology

The phenomenon of infog is based on early 2000s observations on information overload (also known as information pollution). Contrary to the beliefs of, for example, the popular secular humanism of the time, more information did not, anecdotally, result in more knowledge, and often resulted in significantly less. This phenomenon was sometimes referred to as the signal-to-noise effect after the ratio in electrical engineering. Sociological studies in the late 2000s and early 2010s provided more measaurable evidence, although critics challenged the often arbitrary definitions used by the researchers, and the exact nature of the supposed "inverse correlation" has never been satisfactorally demonstrated in the eyes of many scientists.

Early researchers labelled the phenomenon the "inverse comprehension effect". "Infog" as a term to describe it appears to have appeared on a semi-private blog in 2013 but the medgenic qualities of the term made it popular with the press. Along with anything beginning with "nano", infog became one of the buzz sciences of the 2010s, and field of infogology was established.

Primary findings of infog

The primary goal of infogology as a field of study is to provide better and more quantitative evidence for the inverse information effect, including stricter definitions and measurements of the terms information and knowledge. Genuine work in this area has progressed surprisingly little since the solid establishment of the principles of the field in the 2020s. (Surprising because of the influence of infog on 21st Century society.) Fracturing of the field due to differing interpretations and models, and particularly definitions of knowledge, has reduced progress even further.

The primary practical findings of infogology, derided as qualitative at best by many scientists, are that the level of understanding of the world possessed by the average human is actually decreasing (at a roughly linear rate) as the information level in the environment exponentially rises. The high point of average human understanding is proposed as the 1960s, although this conclusion is one of the most controversial subjects in the field. Other researchers posit that a time closer to the 17th Century is more appropriate, some suggest the 1990s, and some suggest (in opposition to the commonly agreed findings) that the high point is now, and that the depreciation of understanding is a hypothetical occurence which will happen in the future. Proponents of this last view are colloquially referred to as cresters as a reference to where they place themselves on a graph that plots human understanding over time.

Theories of infogology range from the laziness model which posits that beyond a certain level of information humans simply stop bothering to pay attention to the knowledge limit model which proposes that there is some finite limit to the knowledge capacity of the human brain, apparently unrelated to the capacity for information. The intellectual model proposes that lack of average understanding is based on dissemination of information and responsilibility amongst the population. The truthiness or strong heart model proposes that humans as a species respect strong opinion more highly than reasoned opinion and are therefore poorly adapted for comprehension.

An important consideration of infogology is expertise. A human is said to have expertise within a domain if he possesses above-average knowledge in that area. The rising infog restricts the scope of domains over time. Domain-based infogology explains infogology as a whole in terms of domains which once encompassed multiple fields of study, and have gradually shrunk as fields have expanded. Humans therefore possess roughly the same level of knowledge, but as technology drives the sophistication of concepts, that knowledge is spread first across fewer fields, then across only a single field, and finally within only a subfield.

Examples of infog

A great many examples of infog occuring have been proposed or demonstrated, including the following (critics of the science complain that these examples form an anecdotal evidence base for a field that lacks real data):

• Democratic elections of the 20th and 21st Centuries (until the 2060s) saw a massive rise in the role of the popular media arbitrating between candidates. Although it is theorised that in early democracies the personalities and principles of the candidates were sufficiently transparent as to allow reasoned voters to choose intelligently between them, by the 21st Century political candidates had been reduced to little more than celebrity figures. Although a vast wealth of information was available on candidates, politic commentators noted that this seemed to have little or no effect on the voting public, suggesting that comprehension of this information was poor.

• Health warnings on products (particularly foodstuffs) became a lasting consumer concern during the 1970s, and the trend of government-imposed mandatory health warnings (including, but not limited to, comprehensive ingredients lists) continued well into the 2030s. Repeated studies demonstrated that even clear health warnings (as were applied to alcoholic drinks in the 2010s) seemed not to make any appreciable difference to human comprehension of health issues.

• The proliferation of the Internet and InterWeb in the 21st Century is seen by many of a turning point in the dissemination of information. Within the space of a generation, humans moved from information being relatively difficult to obtain to "virtually the sum total of human knowledge" being available at their desks. The vague correlation of the development of the Internet with a decline in societal morality is posited by some as an extreme form of infog, although this interpretation is hotly disputed.

• The development of the field of infog itself is seen by some as a shining example of infog in practice. The only consistent aspects of the field are the three-state infomodel (which is fundamental to the field) and the inverse information effect (which is nevertheless disputed by cresters). More or less every other significant find or theory is a matter of debate and controversy, moreso than in any other social science (which are traditionally more fractious than the hard sciences). This makes genuine understanding of the field by laymen virtually impossible.

• The scientific investigation into controversial political agendas by multiple studies, each of which overtly or covertly represents the interests of a different political position, and each of which results in a finding that supports its political ideology. Observers are left with little real knowledge to base judgements on - they are likely to reject the findings of groups they ideologically disagree with, and are thus no better off than they were had no studies been conducted at all.

Attitudes to infog

Attitudes to infog as a phenomenon vary widely.

• Reductionists argue the growth of information level in the environment needs to be controlled in some way.
• Evolutionists believe that the rising level of information is inevitable, and that humanity must simply adapt to the problem (either physically or socially) as it has adapted to all other threats.
• Libertines argue that although the control of information might be possible, it is undesirable on the grounds that some institution must be responsible for editing the sum total of human knowledge in order to reduce it.
• Techno-evolutionists argue that the only way to adapt to infog rapidly enough to survive as a civilisation is with a massive, augmented boost in the human ability to comprehend, and often involve themselves in research to these ends.
• Orderists maintain that infog is a useful tool of social control in the post-Democratic world. Academic orderist infogologists are rare, but it is generally assumed that the Public Relations departments which make heavy applied use of infogology are orderists.

Infog as a social disease

Many ex Terra culturis humans feel that infog, as a concept if not a field of study, has been one of the most powerful social forces on the human race in the last millenium. Proponents of this view claim that infog outweighs in importance the industrial revolution, revolutionary democracy and information networks, all of which should be seen primarily as contributors to the eventual condition of infog. Infog is seen as enabling the actions of hostile entities (primarily the Corporations) within an information-rich world. Within Terran culture infog is granted far less importance, being seen by those humans who have even heard of the concept as obscure and irrelevant to their lives.

Some extreme views on infog posit that it is an inevitable social disease, reached at a certain level of population size and technological development. These observers see infog as the next major threat to human civilisation as a whole, supplanting nuclear war in the post-Cityshield era. Unlike nuclear weapons, infog is not directly harmful but acts to obscure the natural defences of a society against internal threats (such as extremism and authoritarianism) which can destabalise it if not acted on.