Information Overload

“Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler.” ~ Albert Einstein

Competence in communication is a must in our information-clogged society today.  Competent communication can come in many ways, from composure to depth of vocalization.  For example when seeking to employ yourself, whether through a cliché "job" or through independent means, you need one way or another to give a presentation to prove that you are capable of doing what you claim you will do.  In our society today, how you present yourself, is as, if not more important than what you are presenting.

When seeking funding to perform research, say for instance, I know precisely what I am going to do, how I am going to do it and why it will benefit society.  However if I am slouched and mumble softly while presenting to potential investors, the message that the investors receive is not the message I originally started with.

In life we are continually bombarded with these messages, opinions, notions, conceptions and corrections.  In this fast paced society there is bound to be errors in communication, on both the transmitting and receiving ends.  I wish to expound on this with the following, more abstract and technical scenario.

If I have a transmitter, and a set of receivers which are both contain identical decryption and encryption algorithms which have been programmed into them.  However, just before I transmit, I remember that I forgot to program the transmitter with the same decryption and encryption algorithms, but thinking “These digital products are smart they will be able to comprehend what I am sending.”  So I send my message any way, and I send data for hours and then when I finally finish, I walk over to my friend Joe's house - Joe was listening to one of the receivers.  And when I ask him what he thought of the data I sent over the air, he says “It was just white noise, at first I tried to understand it, but after a while I had enough so I just blocked it out, your data must be really screwed up, I am sure glad I did not try and use your data.”[1]

This scenario may seem absurd, and rightly so, there is a stark difference between telecommunications and human communications is that we have a response-ability and flexibility like no machine will ever have.  And it can be tempting to become like a machine, to analyze and assume rather than to simply ask for clarification from a correspondent.

So why didn’t Joe just walk over to my house and ask me to clarify what I was saying?  Maybe it’s because I have built around me a one way wall, one which I spew out information which no one can decrypt, and never take feedback.

All this could have been prevented in the first place if I would have analyzed my audience, and used the right means (algorithm) to send my messages.  When it comes down to the ‘nitty gritty’ we ultimately have the ability to make our own free will responses, but it helps to have put a bit of forethought into them. Thus it is primly beneficial to positively pre-program(‘prime’) our instinctive, originating output and resolute responses (signal compressing and processing).

Sincerely,

--

^“15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” ~ NIV Joshua 24:15

Jordan D. Ulmer

Cited:

1. Spencer, Sam. "An Overview of Information Theory." Math Coop. Rockwell Collins, Cedar Rapids. 18 Jan. 2013. Lecture.