Sta Hungry Stay Foolish

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

A blog by Leon Oudejans

More information = more focus = less knowledge = less common sense

Each day, I receive some 150 newsletters from various backgrounds. I scan all topics and read several articles. There’s a considerable overlap in their topics, which allows me to create some efficiencies. Some articles look promising initially, but are not. The opposite also happens.

I’ve plenty of time, being without a paid job. I use that time to read, think and write. Still, even I feel an information overload at times. I must focus to survive that overload. I skip nearly all opinions and all articles that are too technical for my generalist (auditing) education and training.

Most – if not all – articles and opinions are focusing on micro discussions, events or issues. Philosophical and geopolitical articles and/or opinions tend to include the bigger picture. Hence, my interest in these.

Given the above, it’s no wonder that societies use more and more (job) specialists. To some extent, managers are still generalists. The lower her/his hierarchy, the more specialised the (middle) manager will be. General managers will probably always remain generalists.

I do wonder if the fabric of society can survive this ever-increasing information overload. It may rip it apart.

Perhaps, western societies have already reached this point as their level of divisiveness is overwhelming. First, the Trump presidency (2016-2020) tore families and friendships apart. Now, a virus (2019 onwards) alienates people and makes some countries look like idiocracies (eg, my recent blog).

To a large extent, we will need artificial intelligence to decrease the huge gap between the many specialists (ie, micro) and the few generalists (ie, macro). Artificial Intelligence (AI) is mostly a belief right now. Soonish, we will want AI to replace expensive human specialists. See my blogs on Needs, Wants & Beliefs.

Outsourcing our micro focus to Artificial Intelligence should – and hopefully will – allow the return of a macro focus and (thus?) also the return of common sense.

Thus far, humankind has mostly benefited from the Technical Revolution (1800-2100), and its various waves, being Mechanisation (1800-1900), Automation (1900-2000), and Artificial Intelligence & Robotics (2000 onwards). The first wave includes the Industrial Revolution (1760-1820/40).

Time will tell if it was wise to outsource knowledge to artificially intelligent machines. I think, feel and believe that as long as such machines remain technological tools, we should be safe from harm (video). Once we add artificially intelligent beliefs to such machines then we will have created our own successor (eg, humanoid sapiens) and homo sapiens becomes obsolete.

Here Is the News (1981) by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO)
artists, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2

Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless stated otherwise.

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