« iTunes Videos | Main | Voices in your hand: one step back is two steps forward »
October 14, 2005
What does information want from us?
I read about half of a terrific book this weekend, “The Botany of Desire” by Michael Pollan. Its premise is simple but fertile: do plants “use” humans as much as we use them? The domestic dog, by learning to pick up on human emotional responses, has benefited evolutionarily compared to the wolf. Dogs that got along better with people were cared for in return. Likewise, learn to domesticate dogs and you get cheap labor, protection, etc.; the dog-human relationship benefitted both sides. Can the same be said of plants? Examining the relationship from this new angle lets Pollan explore four plants’ (the apple, the tulip, cannabis, and the potato) successful exploitation of human desires as an evolutionary tactic.
It made me think, again, of Ben Cerveny’s Design Engaged presentation from last year (some good notes on it by Timo Arnall). Ben’s take on the botany of information and our “gardening” of it might also be flipped around: what does information want from us? (I don’t think “information wants to be free” is a sufficient answer here.) Ben’s talk pointed to metadata as the catalyst of a “nitrogen cycle” that allows information to live past its original context, find purchase in new applications, or to make itself findable among other information that might compete for attention. Does information “want” metadata from us?
Posted by Andrew at October 14, 2005 09:19 PM