It is a fascinating question that led to some awesome lunchtime conversation the other day at work. Some more food for thought was recently written by Freeman Dyson in The New York Review of Books, who was reviewing James Gleick’s newest, “The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood”, which I’m gonna just have to read. Metafilter, as usual, had an interesting discussion to follow.
Other related links:
Nicholas Carr at The Daily Beast
Wired: Why the Basis of the Universe Isn’t Matter or Energy—It’s Data
Philadelphia Inquirer: Tirdad Derakhshani: Information Please
James Gleick was just at the Free Library kicking off his book tour. A gave a very interesting talk, and I, of course, bought a copy of his book. It is now sitting with the stack of other books I need to read.
Information flood, indeed.
hehe – I’m the same way Scott – I have a whole shelf of books that I intend to read someday.