Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
Wiener was as worldly as Shannon was reticent. He was well traveled and polyglot, ambitious and socially aware; he took science personally and passionately. His expression of the second law of thermodynamics, for example, was a cry of the heart: We are swimming upstream against a great torrent of disorganization, which tends to reduce everything to
... See moreJames Gleick • The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
Writing in and of itself had to reshape human consciousness. Among the many abilities gained by the written culture, not the least was the power of looking inward upon itself.
James Gleick • The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
globalization is, and will remain, simply the movement of mass—of raw materials, foodstuffs, finished products, and people—and the transmission of information (warnings, guidance, news, data, ideas) and investment within and among the continents, enabled by techniques that make such transfers possible on large scales and in affordable and reliable
... See moreVaclav Smil • How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going
The sound created by a guitar disappears as the sound waves penetrate the air. The ripples created by a pebble thrown into a pond disappear as the pond goes back to its resting state. This loss of information was explained by the physics discovered in the nineteenth century, but the growth of information that continues to take place in well-defined
... See moreCesar Hidalgo • Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies
Wired • Mother Earth Mother Board
More information was generated in 2001 than in all the previous existence of our species on earth. In fact, 2001 doubled the previous total. And 2002 doubled the amount present in 2001, adding around 23 “exabytes” of new information—roughly the equivalent of 140,000 Library of Congress collections.
Martin Gurri • Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium
Hooke suggested to Newton how gravity can explain planetary motion. Hooke’s suggestions launched Newton on the path to his masterpiece, Principia. Although Hooke suggested some of the initial ideas, he did not have the skills to create a complete system. Newton did. Newton was a great synthesizer, just as Jobs was a great synthesizer.
Safi Bahcall • Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries
But it is not known whether the principle obscurely described in the specification was applicable in any way to the invisible agency employed in Psycho.The punch line was that the article was signed "John Algernon Clarke." So the author claimed he was mystified by his own creation and couldn't properly determine whether his own patent was
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