On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it's so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other.
Interpretation
Information is both valuable and increasingly accessible, creating a tension between its cost and its availability.
This quote by Stewart Brand highlights the dual nature of information in the modern age. On one side, information is regarded as highly valuable, capable of transforming lives when properly utilized. Conversely, technological advancements reduce the cost of sharing information, leading to a push for free access. This creates a conflict where the inherent value of information competes with the growing trend toward its free dissemination.
In practice
During a lecture on the role of technology in society, this quote can illustrate the paradox of information sharing.
The urgent finds you; you have to find the important. Importance is not fast. It is slow. It is not superficial. It is deep. And as a result, it's extremely powerful. When important matters go wrong, they undermine everything. When they go right, they sustain everything.
Science is the only news. When you scan a news portal or magazine, all the human interest stuff is the same old he-said-she-said, the politics and economics the same cyclical dramas, the fashions a pathetic illusion of newness; even the technology is predictable if you know the science behind it. Human nature doesn't change much; science does, and the change accrues, altering the world irreversibly
A library doesn't need windows. A library is a window.
Not only have computers changed the way we think, they've also discovered what makes humans think - or think we're thinking. At least enough to predict and even influence it.
Figuring out what the next big trend is tells us what we should focus on.
Technology and comfort - having those, people speak of culture, but do not have it.
It used to be that the only ones with access to cutting-edge technology were top government labs, big companies and the ultra-rich. It was simply too expensive for the rest of us to afford.
Virality, at its core, is asking someone to spend their social capital recommending or linking or posting about you for free.
Time’ has ceased, 'space' has vanished. We now live in a global village... a simultaneous happening
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