Sunday, October 23, 2005

Stereo

I’ve used the concept of information in stereo as a metaphor for macroinformation at Mi.org for years. For the moment this is just a note pledging that I intend to develop it further: particularly in relation to the importance of the development of stereoscopic vision among primates. All primates and many another crittur have two eyes, but where the eyes are located in the skull changed among some primates -- monkeys, apes -- giving us vision with a much better developed awareness of location in three dimensional space: important if you live in and around trees. Now all sentiences process information, including macroinformation. My theory would urge us to relocated our theoretical eyes the better to process information multi-dimensionally. The bush baby sits in a tree, sees the other branches; the spider monkey sees the other branches better: can make more spectacular leaps with fewer falls, is better at thriving in the same three (four, five ...) dimensions. The spider monkey sees more possibilities, and more dangers, than the bush baby. The chimp, with a bigger brain, different wiring, sees more from that same more than the spider monkey, and the man sees more than the chimp. Macroinformationally astute man would see more, vastly more (and more dangers), than informational Flatland man.