Reply #7: Too much info is a heck of a lot better than too little...

[benEzra]

which is why life today is a lot better, generally speaking, than life a thousand years ago. We tend to idealize peasant life, but having half your kids die in childhood, women dying in childbirth, EVERYONE in peril of mass famine if a little crop fungus comes along...subsistence farming, no medical care, and no education pretty much sucks.

There are people who still live that way in this world (sad to say), but it's not because there's too much information going around; it's generally because their governments and/or leaders don't let the peons have information, education, or meaningful self-direction.

Even if you compare life in 2006, with all the info flooding us, to life in 1950 (when info was tightly managed by information gatekeepers), we're much better with more information. We're no longer subject to information management by others, and I think infodemocracy is a fantastic thing.