Super information system (SIS)/Super structure
- An Information system is an ecosystem of components (people, data/information, technologies) capable of performing the following functions in a specific context.
- Collect data
- Store data
- Process data
- Distribute data
- Generate data/new information.
- We (humans) are capable of performing all the above functions.
- In our case, the context for the information system is the whole human civilization, and wherever humans can navigate, interact/perform actions, collect, and distribute information (SIS).
- From human information reception POV, SIS dominantly includes: Education system, TV news/newspaper, digital social media, books, movies and other entertainment media, websites and human
social network . - Formation of most of the belief system is influenced by SIS, including cultural beliefs, identity values(two traits). Human society and SIS continuously interact with each other and co-evolve(
Media ecology ). - Throughout the evolution, the SIS was limited to:
- Information needed to survive and thrive in the physical world/terrain, like info about resources and dangers.
- Other people in society, social network, hierarchy, cultural beliefs.
- There were no large-scale persistent storage and computer systems other than a network of human minds, which allowed people to add their biases (learned, evolutionary), make mistakes, contemplate, and extend knowledge in between collecting and distributing information, which led to the evolution of cultures and languages we see worldwide.
- Within a few decades, the SIS has grown orders of magnitude higher in complexity and in quantity of information after the introduction of mass media. We are not evolutionarily equipped to consciously– semantically and statistically– discern each and every piece of information we receive and form cognitive models/mental schemas which are free of semantic inconsistencies/dissonance. Significant amount of the time, we just store and repeat the information as it is.
- SIS—dominantly mass media— acts as medium for implementation/occurrence of identity wiring, execution of identity fishing.
- The diagram below attempts a high-level visualization.
- Blue nodes: individuals/agents. Blue node network: human social network (high level)
- Red/pink: Block shows recently formed component, but most dominant information source in modern environment. Red lines show each node interacts with mass media in personal capacity OR in other words, mass media is capable of engaging with the whole society on an individual level, bypassing local social constraints, influencing society through information referencing, social truth.
Super information system, Media Ecology
