Introduction to Infophobia

The idea of having a phobia probably causes most Americans to feel anxiety, that worry in itself though, in some cases, might just be another phobia — that is how I know, not all phobias are created equal. While the term phobia can mean having an irrational fear of something, lets not also exclude that it does also mean to have an irrational sensitivity to something.

Still, I feel warm considering the idea that “it all” began when I was just seven or eight years old, sitting behind a keyboard for the first time. Only because that idea itself, makes my progression over the last two decades, seem epic. Chances are, there was nothing epic going on. More than likely “it all”, as I so vaguely put it, was the result of a major case of infophobia.

Something we all suffer from… from time to time.

Now, I suspect, your mind will probably want to attack that word — infophobia — so allow me to do it first: there is no such word as infophobia, at least not in any English Dictionary that I have looked over.

Infophobia is not the battle-cry of some counterculture. Nor is it some industry’s new favorite buzzword. And, infophobia is not some fancy, underhanded term coined so that you’d land in the chair of a therapist either. In fact, infophobia is my very own term.

Let me clarify though, I don’t mean “my very own term” in the usual quaint sense. I mean, its my own term because I registered Infophobia as a trademarked business name. Surely though, shameless plugging is not the reason I brought the term up.

Infophobia describes the cause for (my) anyone’s irrational compulsion to know as much as possible at all times through as many mediums as he/she can find, and despite one’s physical limitations. The term is used to describe the cause for why someone seeks sources of information and information itself, only compulsively.

So, now you know what I mean, when I say, Infophobia. But, does it really mean anything — does such an “illness” exist?

Yes, it does.

We know this kind of behavior/phenomena has occurred in the past, because today, we see the results of the typical symptoms. For instance, one can directly correlate the advancements of information technology with a progressive trend toward open syndication of information. That is, starting with the advent of the Internet, one can find countless examples, on and including, the World Wide Web, or, through the birth of the Open Source Software Community, later leading to Web 2.0 philosophies of free use and collaboration — where one observes the complete transformation of these venues into Infophobic platforms. Clearly, members of these social networks are compelled, through the fear of missing some bit of data, and are motivated to stay connected, in order to remain having a sense of relevance — this is the very nature of popular culture.

We can consider almost any amount of demand in almost any form, with the purpose of information syndication, a typical result of one, or any combination of Infophobic symptoms. This demand is driven by what we can call the Principle of Ideal Preference. Simply stated that is, that the majority of the embodiment of a demand will always tend to prefer ideal results.

The best, simplest example is the “market shopper.” As consumers in a market, the embodiment of the demand is the ideal purchase of ideal products. No one goes shopping with the preference of buying something less than ideal, or in a less than ideal way. Even if it were suggested someone wanted to purchase something already broken, or from some far away place — already broken, or far away are restrictive and define the criteria by which the consumer has entitled the item, or the process ideal.

This is not simply a case of curiosity not so easily dismissed, either. Infophobia is a more deeply rooted part of the human pathology. And, understanding Infophobia, the fear of informational uncertainty itself, or of an awareness that avenues of information are potentially being missed, is integral to understanding the mindset applied during the development of innovative concepts. These fears, worries, and/or concerns invoke thought processes which help to sure up errors found at design time.

Infophobia promotes many of our current, and especially are most effective, analytical, human behaviors. Beyond just analysis, it is this pathological process that motivates, and re-enforces what would otherwise be a fleeting curiosity, and cements these impulses into evolving, problem-solving behaviors.

Tactician

When I opened this site, I vowed that if I was to link to another site permanently, it would only be because I read the content there faithfully. While that may mean any number of things; things like I may or may not like the idea or the people involved, personally; or, that I may agree or disagree with the idea, or people involved, on any number of other issues; it certainly does means one very important thing: I take being associated with people very seriously. And, I’ll tell you, thats because I’m a tactician…

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Spinorial Theory

Figure 1The Scary Science in this article, should leave you staring blindly, and then into a puddle of drool, collecting slowly at your feet, as you read deeper and deeper. Its at the very least “a little heady.” But, hey, if you think String Theory has been burrowing much from the patience, and complication piles, and aren’t interested in all that complex geometry they’ve made with strings, then, let enter: The Spinorial Theory!

The Spinorial Theory seems a much more simple ship to put to sea, in my opinion. While String Theory can tote a much broader adoption amongst scientists, the theory is amazingly complex and requires a great deal of training to understand, which may indicate its over-architecture. And, String Theory actually fails to make very many accurate predictions. With complexity in overdrive, and the subject of study being the nature of the universe, science is likely to pull a metaphorical muscle just trying to test String Theory’s predictions, as they stand now. Meantime, they could have been wrong at the inset.

The Spinorial Theory offers a fairly simple alternative to using Strings in a specially constructed 11 dimensional space, the controversial and rather complicated geometric explanation of the nature of the universe as provided in String Theory. The alternative presented in Spinorial Theory, is that perhaps these other dimensions (for which our senses do not account) belonging within Einstein’s space-time, aren’t “folded-up” spacial dimensions, but instead, are “invisible” temporal (time-like) dimensions.

The simplicity resonates with me, while some predictions made here seem just as difficult to prove as those made in String Theory.