The Next Great Discontinuity: The Data Deluge
Writing
for 3quarksdaily 
Speed is the elegance of thought, which mocks stupidity, heavy and slow. Intelligence thinks and says the unexpected; it moves with the fly, with its flight. A fool is defined by predictability…
But if life is brief, luckily, thought travels as fast as the speed of light. In earlier times philosophers used the metaphor of light to express the clarity of thought; I would like to use it to express not only brilliance and purity but also speed. In this sense we are inventing right now a new Age of Enlightenment…
A lot of… incomprehension… comes simply from this speed. I am fairly glad to be living in the information age, since in it speed becomes once again a fundamental category of intelligence.
Michel Serres, Conversations on Science, Culture and Time
(Originally published at 3quarksdaily · Link to Part One)
Human beings are often described as the great imitators:
We perceive the ant and the termite as part of nature. Their nests and mounds grow out…
Read in full at 3quarksdaily.com: http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2009/04/the-next-great-discontinuity-part-two.html
