[Sigia-l] Serious Discussion of IA Research?

[Ed Housman]

People played ball and shot cannons for a long time before they
understood the physics (aka laws) of motion.  We are apparently
in the same situation; we use information without understanding
how it functions.

Yes, the "law" of gravity went through a tweaking in the past
few decades as we unraveled the mysteries of quantum mechanics,
but these kinds of theoretical explorations should occupy
some of our energies as we continue building cool info structures
that work for a while, then crumble due to a faulty foundation.

--Ed  

--- "Jared M. Spool" <jspool at uie.com> wrote:

> At 04:59 PM 11/27/2004, bill pawlak wrote:
> >I still have to question whether or not it's a "law" or on the same
> >level as something like gravity is, though (which what was originally
> >suggested as being needed...)
> 
> Maybe the problem is the word "law"
> 
> Gravity isn't a law. It's a property of nature.
> 
> Gravity predates any laws by millions of years. It operates without laws.
> 
> Newton's Law of Gravity isn't what makes gravity work. It only explains a 
> natural behavior of objects.
> 
> In fact, Newton's law could be wrong. It's possible that it only works in 
> our part of the universe. There very well could be other places where the 
> law doesn't work at all.
> 
> So, Newton's Law isn't a law at all. It's a theory which has held up 
> without disproof for a really long time. That doesn't mean it can't be 
> disproved -- just that we don't know enough to do it.
> 
> Given that, I believe that there could be laws of information architectures 
> -- theories so sound that it will take a really long time to disprove them.
> 
> Keep in mind that it took thousands of years before Newton "discovered" 
> gravity (sitting in the right place at the right time). It may be beyond 
> our lifetime before we get similar "discoveries". However, we won't get 
> them if we don't start doing the work to uncover them.
> 
> Jared
> 
> 
> Jared M. Spool, Founding Principal
> User Interface Engineering
> 4 Lookout Lane, Unit 4d
> Middleton, MA 01949
> 978 777-9123
> jspool at uie.com
> http://www.uie.com 
> 
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