Information Overload

I think we are seeing the nastiest symptoms of information overload. Not only are we personally being seriously affected by too much information, our whole society is being overwhelmed by all the data it has to manage. For example, there is the unbelievable number of laptops being lost everyday that contain confidential information. Despite all the publicity that highlighted the problem in the last few months, we are still experiencing data security breaches due to laptop theft or loss. Another example: government agencies are unable to safeguard valuable data. NASA is the latest victim as it confessed to have lost magnetic tapes of man's first moon landing. Not only are the tapes lost, but NASA's attitude about these important and historical objects reflects how overwhelmed we are. The spokesman stated: I wouldn't say we're worried -- we've got all the data. Everything on the tapes we have in one form or another. Unfortunately, the quality of what we got is seriously degraded from the original. The spokesman also said it is possible that the tapes will be unplayable even if they are found because they have degraded significantly over the years -- a problem common to magnetic tape and other types of recordable media. Which to me indicates potential mismanagement of these valuable data holders. I bet we would not be hearing the same non-chalant tone if the Declaration of Independence was suddenly lost. Nevertheless, it is perhaps time to re-examine our world, our priorities and our methodologies -- and it is definitely time to simplify our lives. I do believe this train is a bit out of control.