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Information Turbulence

Dec 8, 2019Accents, Articles, Canadian, English, Science&Tech, World News

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Preparation
CONSIDER

Do you like to watch the news, or think about world events?

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Transcript
Andrew and José continue their conversation at the URL below:

 https://goldfish365.com/accents/information-turbulence-2/

José Cruz: If you’re not given a set of- of ways to handle information coming from you, you’re going to be reliant on the goodwill of people who are good responsible journalists and we can’t afford that anymore. (Yeah) We have to do this thinking for ourselves, or this will to happen (We-) again and again and again.

Andrew Robertson: Well this, this comes onto a point I mentioned I don’t- I think maybe before we started recording about the relationship between thermodynamics, (Ah) and Trump and Brexit. There are these these concepts in chemistry where we- we look at uh, firstly what reactions, chemical reactions will happen which is thermodynamics; whether a reaction will happen or won’t happen. So for example, we know that if we ex- if we react hydrogen and oxygen, we, we explode them together they make water. But we don’t worry about the water in our glasses turning into hydrogen and oxygen. The- the reaction will go one direction and not the other.

José: Not the other way because-

Andrew: And that’s “thermodynamics”.

José: Sure, because the expulsion of energy.

Andrew: Yeah, it tells you fundamentally what is possible and what is not possible. And then there’s another concept which is “kinetics” which is about movement of the molecules and that’s how the reactions happen, and um, that tells us why a reaction maybe instead of going this way, which it- it went the other way, or something like that. So what we’ve got here is this, when you’ve got a, a- a blend of those two things: the kinetics which says a range of different things can happen, and the thermodynamics which is now saying lots of different things can happen if we’ve got enough energy you get uh, you can change from something, for example if you’ve got water going down a pipe, if you move the water reasonably slowly, it’ll all go down as just a nice stream down the pipe but when you increase the flow of that water past a certain point it becomes turbulent and the water starts- (Chaotic yeah) starts- chaotic and that nice flow disappears and there’s a very abrupt transition between those two things, and it’s a fundamental transition. It’s- You can try and do your engineering to reduce it or whatever but once you go past a certain point you are always going to get turbulence and what we’ve got now, I’m convinced is information turbulence. (Hmm) So information is coming into…

José: This is a (Our lives) personal hypothesis?

Andrew: Yeah. We- information is coming into our lives so fast and there’s so much of it (Hm) that we it- we cannot now process it properly (Hm) and ultimately what’s happening is the reason people like Trump and Brexit and whatever and anti-vaxxers are getting through is because they are the ones with the clearest message. And they’ve got this clear message because they don’t have to worry about facts. They don’t have to worry about nuances or difficult uh, truths or anything like that. They just have this really simple message. Trump says, I’m going to build a wall and make everyone better. Brexit is, we’re going to leave EU and it’s going to make everything wonderful. (It’s great) Anti-vaxxers are saying stop taking your vaccines, and your kids won’t get sick. That’s their message. It’s so simple. (Yeah) But the truth is there are all kinds of complications. And so the people who are trying to put the truth out there, they’re saying, well yes immigrants are coming in but by and large (But) Immigrants are…

José: But in this ca- na na na na na na They’re making everything chaotic (Yeah) very hard to absorb (Yeah) for the normal individual.

Andrew: Yeah. Whereas um when you get these really simple messages coming in (Sure sure) from the the crazies, those are the messages that get through. And because we just don’t have time to to process- Well we only have if- we only have time to process these messages if we sit down and take that time. And some of us do want to do that and most people don’t. And when I say, “most” it might be a small majority but it is- it’s a majority.

Consolidation
DISCUSSION

What kinds of news or information do you enjoy getting?

Do you think society gets good information from newspapers and TV?

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Speakers

José Domingo Cruz image

José Domingo Cruz

Canadian

Vancouver, British Columbia

Karen Ban Image

Andrew Robertson

English

Southern England, Britain


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6 Comments

  1. We can get information easily and quickly from the Internet, news, etc. But Most of the information is sent unilaterally, and it is difficult to know its accuracy. We have to rely on the information of the author of the article. Also, as described in this article, I feel that simple messages are easier to understand and have more impact than detailed content. In fact, I often saw a lot of article about political content on twitter and the title of an article is clear and concise. I am often attracted to it when I see it, but I can hardly get any information from it. In order to confirm the information, we have to read and think carefully. There were times when I was attracted by simple content and agreed with it, but when I looked at the content, it was sometimes different from what I had imagined. It is important to examine carefully so as not to be misled. As I said at the beginning, there is a lot of information. We have to compare them, and it takes time, but if we don’t do it, we’re abandoning our responsibilities.
    It’s difficult, but we have to be a person who can handle information well.

    Reply
  2. In the modern society we live in, we often see news from various perspectives. I think that there is a lot of news that conveys information from a one-side point of view (I’m not sure if it’s malicious). When journalists write news, they should be neutral and write facts as they are. However, they often write articles that are biased by their experience and thoughts. Although, we can only read articles which written by journalists to get some information. So, I think the important thing is the ability to read articles correctly. It is a mistake to think that everything written there is true. I think reading only articles that share the same opinion as yourself does not lead to a true understanding of the things. Sometimes we should read an article that says dissent and know the opinions of the opposition. We have to admit that both (president Donald Trump and immigrants) opinions make sense about American immigration prevention wall. I think that we can get correct information for the first time after this stage. The world is full of information. In this situation, this is very difficult but, we must be person who can see the information wisely.

    Reply
  3. We have come to be able to share various information through the Internet. SNS (social network service), which has been rapidly developing in recent years, has important functions such as information transmission, sharing, and diffusion. To share about ourself is easy, but we also need to think about privacy issues. Ours management of information is important because we do not know when or where our information will be disclosed. However, it is also important to sort out countless information. This is because there is a possibility of misunderstanding in a lot of information. In addition, I think that we have to act responsibly on the part that presents the information. Making irresponsible remarks is easy. We should understand that our simple statements can hurt others. It’s not easy to decide if it’s the right information or the wrong information, but we have to treat the information based on our own thoughts.Information handling will continue to be an important issue in the future. It is possible for each user to create a better information society by having a proper idea about SNS.

    Reply
  4. Our society today has become an information society with a lot of information flying around. Some of this information may contain not only the truth, but also lies. Even if the information seems to be true at first glance, if you check it out or back it up, there are many cases where it is wrong. Especially with the news, if you think that the information is correct, you may be in danger of putting yourself in danger. Nowadays, anyone can enter the Internet and transmit information anytime and anywhere. While this in itself is a wonderful development, it can result in more information than is necessary. It is difficult to judge whether the information is really correct or not, but I believe that the solution to this problem is for us to be able to select the information we need. I believe that information technology will continue to further accelerate in the future, but I believe that those who are able to cope with it are the ones who will be able to keep up with society in the future. Since we are not only receiving information in one way, but also sending it out, we have to be more careful in our handling of information. It is important to handle and transmit information correctly.

    Reply
  5. We are exposed to a lot of information in our daily lives. It can get information not only from the Internet, but also from television, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, and sometimes conversations with others. How trustworthy each of these media is, how accurate they are, whether they are up-to-date or not, what kind of person and how they learned You must read and interpret the matter yourself, such as whether you are speaking from a different perspective or whether or not it contains your own thoughts. It is none other than the person who is unwilling to believe in the information they receive and swallows the wrong information.

    Reply
  6. I read an article about Information Turbulence. I also think a lot of information is coming into our lives. Moreover information is coming into our lives so fast. From those things, I think it is difficult for us to proses the information and determine whether it is necessary or not necessary. I thought there would be a lot of false information because there is a lot of information in our lives. I think the important thing for us is that we do not believe all the information. First of all, we question the information, we will be less deceived by false information. Information is passed from person to person. When person communicates information to another person, it does not get completely communicated to the other person.
    So information often changes from the beginning. I think we must be careful not to be deceived by such information. I think not only social media, but also TV and newspaper and conversation are important information media. I think the Internet has a lot of information.
    Moreover the Internet can do research quickly. But TV and newspaper and conversation
    have good points. I think we read a newspaper to help one understand for oneself.
    I think we can improve our communication skills by having conversation.

    Reply

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