Presencing: Information Age

 If the information appears as a sea, you need a boat, a yacht, or a ship.  What is a seacraft in the sea of information if not the complex of logic and tools acquired and assembled gradually and incrementally in the mind and in the tool and instrument of the computer.  At sea, ere the use of a compass and a compass, one first learns heading and speed.  There is the wind, the surf, what weather, what sailors one sails with.  One learns to think and move, and steer and right.  There is seaboard and port, there are storm clouds and calm seas.

Why information appears as a sea is its abundance at the click of a mouse, at the turn of a remote, at the tap of a finger.  Not all of it is relevant; in fact, only a bit of the sea seems interesting and worthwhile.  The question is why, and the question is how.  How to catch the opportunity of encounter so that when it appears to one's eyes, one's attention captures the moment so the mind can enjoy the text, the video, the picture, the news, the very information.  Without the capture of the moment, the data sits, inert and meaningless, waiting for the opportunity to be known and transformed that never came at all.

But what is relevant lies in the question why.  Curiosity never killed anybody despite cats' superstitions of it.  The curiosity came from the depths as interest rises from the deeps onto the wayward consciousness.  It could be an ad that showed a rocket that reminded one of the trips to the park to set off a model rocket with dad.  It could be a snippet in the opinion column that reminded one of how better to care after the herbs in the backyard that dried out over the winter.  A color of someone's jacket that reminded one of the color of mom's cake's topping, or a painting in the doctor's office waiting room that spells a feeling of dread at the traffic jam on the highway last week following a wreck.

Information is data transformed by consciousness.  Consciousness of the book club, or consciousness of the school board, or consciousness of one's private own soul that one dares not share with anybody.  The news is full of data meant to be transformed into common information - so it is that we are sharing in common worlds and realities.  Even the traffic light conveys information, but nobody expects a sailor to notice every last bird's cry and the shape of every last surf.  

Wonder, the beginning of great information.