Information hyperglut - How can anyone find anything anymore? And it's getting worse.

July 5, 2007

Everyone has used search engines at one time or another, and most probably everyone dreads the experience. Do people expect us to go through all these pages of results? especially since, most of the time, we are led astray. Even seasoned computer people are left wondering whether he or she has not kept up, that there must be some new language or reasoning these people use in their algorithms to bring us these results?

We all know about subjectivity and objectivity. We cannot all be experts in Dewey Decimal System or Library of Congress Subject Headings Keywords, and nor should we. We want a simple method that allows a simple man, with a simple education, to find a reply to his simple question, with a REASONABLE amount of mouse clicks.

Surely humanity has always had and still has its percentage of geniuses. Put them to work on this problem. It's getting urgent, people!

An ancient anecdote comes to mind: remember this sage who only requested from his king a simple recompense for his services? He asked that the king filled a chessboard with grains of wheat. One grain for the first square, two for the second, four for the third and eight for the fourth, and so on. People have estimated that the number of grains required to fill the last square of the chessboard, the 64th, would cover the surface of a certain country with 10cm of grain!

Why not use this same reasoning, using a factor of eight rather than a factor of two? Everyone of us can choose one of eight clearly defined choices, then another choice between eight choices, then another. And then, even if our information is one in trillions of trillions of trillions of others, we should be able to find it. It's all a combination of words, there is a finite number of words and (normal) people use a finite number of combinations. Don't tell us that is exactly what you're doing now, it's not working!

Put the geniuses to work. We desperately need an answer. Think how it would be like for our children.

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