Trawl industry news or employment classifieds (pick your preferred sector) using keywords like "research" and "information", and you might find yourself thinking that the sum total of reality is digital, too big for mere human minds to process, and that making sense of it is best left to machines and software. It's a world in … Continue reading Left in folders next to the trivial and the mundane
Confronted by a fate that restricts their lives
I know nothing of Korea, other than having a general sense of the roles its politically divided geographies play vis-a-vis US and global security, two subjects that I follow closely. Occasionally a blockbluster headline will focus the mind. The past few weeks have produced two: a very public and messy political assassination, tracked in near-real … Continue reading Confronted by a fate that restricts their lives
A signed statement on the failure of language
I've stayed away from commenting publicly on the new US administration. There's so much fodder, so much grist, that it could easily overwhelm. It does overwhelm. Daily news feeds are prefaced and filled with coverage of Trump, his family, his appointments, his interests. My instinct is to stay completely away from it, for at least … Continue reading A signed statement on the failure of language
A brief foray into distraction’s history
This looks interesting: A Crisis of Short Attention Spans, 250 Years Ago By Natalie M. Phillips | January 01, 2017 When most people think of distraction, they think of flooded inboxes, cellphone beeps, Twitter feeds. An ever-present and unavoidable consequence of our fast-paced contemporary world, distraction is cast as a — if not the — … Continue reading A brief foray into distraction’s history
What “post-factual news” means for researchers
Some semi-random thoughts, as headlines continue to focus on "post-factual" news: There is a lot in common between what we're seeing now in Britain and the US, and researchable "news" in fragile and conflict affected states. The recent Brexit referendum and US Presidential campaigns are just the two, latest and possibly most prominent cases that … Continue reading What “post-factual news” means for researchers
MICHAEL A. INNES 