Thread: Too Much Info Perhaps

With access to information at our fingertips, is there anything besides personal things, that can't be googled or researched on the internet. I mean no one can google to find out all about me personally (I stand to be corrected) but what about science? Sticking with science, is there anything that can't be googled about known science? Is the proliferation of available information, right or wrong, actually aiding development & progress within science's many fields of study? Just looking for an opinion.

My opinion is that it could help, because more ideas are floating in the pseudo-meta-neural-network, so it is easier for a researcher to have basic notions ideas from other fields that can give him insights or imagination for resolutions/new tools/new technique/new material/new understanding/new point of view, etc that would not have been easily perceived before the internet. It allows a specialist to have wider general knowledge which helps imo.

Part of why technology is developing at near exponential rates is that one breakthrough or new understanding in one domain, can have a dramatic catalyst effect in a completely different field

Originally Posted by icewendigo

My opinion is that it could help, because more ideas are floating in the pseudo-meta-neural-network, so it is easier for a researcher to have basic notions ideas from other fields that can give him insights or imagination for resolutions/new tools/new technique/new material/new understanding/new point of view, etc that would not have been easily perceived before the internet. It allows a specialist to have wider general knowledge which helps imo.

Part of why technology is developing at near exponential rates is that one breakthrough or new understanding in one domain, can have a dramatic catalyst effect in a completely different field

The internet as the impetus for new discovery or simply as a research tool??

Do you think that students writing exams should be allowed internet access during that time? Would you think it justified since that's what they'd be accustomed to in the real world? Internet access at exam time, would it mean more people pass because of higher marks, or would there be only a subtle difference?

"The internet as the impetus for new discovery"

We often draw ideas by observing the environment, books have expanded the amount of ideas and observations within reach, while the internet is doing the same as books but on a faster larger scale and artificially(computer assisted) doing basic parts of the process. So its both an indirect (expanding available) source of inspiration and a tool.

Originally Posted by icewendigo

"The internet as the impetus for new discovery"

We often draw ideas by observing the environment, books have expanded the amount of ideas and observations within reach, while the internet is doing the same as books but on a faster larger scale and artificially(computer assisted) doing basic parts of the process. So its both an indirect (expanding available) source of inspiration and a tool.

For sure, I think it has more upside than down, however.....

I did some editing just before you answered my previous post:

Do you think that students writing exams should be allowed internet access during that time? Would you think it justified since that's what they'd be accustomed to in the real world? Internet access at exam time, would it mean more people pass because of higher marks, or would there be only a subtle difference?