Kilham Larry. - The Digital Rabbit Hole

Let us imagine todays version of the classic story, Alice in Wonderland. The story might open like this:

Alice began to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the lawn, and of having nothing to do. Once or twice she peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, and what is the use of a book, thought Alice, when people can see everything in color and sound on their smartphone?

She smiled mischievously, grasped her glowing smartphone and began listening to it through her tiny earbuds. Suddenly a white rabbit appeared in a great state of agitation, saying, Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late! He took a smartphone out of his vest, glanced at it attentively, and said, Be quick, follow me, or we will miss the tea. Alice jumped up, and looking for a little adventure, ran after him. The rabbit tapped his smartphone screen, and Alices smartphone screen came to life with a live video of some people and creatures sitting around a picnic table having tea.

Hurry up, he said, as he disappeared down a hole under a hedge. Alice followed and found herself falling weightlessly, with the walls of the tunnel fading out of view. Is there a bottom? she wondered. She was so absorbed by it all that she forgot to be afraid.

In this new world, Cyberland, Alice could find no places to eat, no malls, only some strangers sitting around a picnic table having tea. Then, boom! Alice hit the ground. She struggled to her wobbly feet and scraped her head on the roof of a space with no walls in any direction.

A button appeared on her smartphone labeled click here. Alice clicked without thinking about what could happen next and found herself shrinking. The rabbit appeared again. You are as tall as me! Alice cried. So? he said. Hurry, were late!

This Alice in Cyberland scenario is no longer fantasy. More and more peoplealmost all of the younger generationsare falling down digital rabbit holes. We all make forays into digital places where we find our friends, gather information, make discoveries, or set out on adventures.

For centuries, social groups, books, libraries, songs, movies, and other media fulfilled those functions, but they were optional behavior. Now we have the Internet, which is not optional. It is a digital rabbit hole we fall into and cannot escape. The doors and windows to this infinite Cyberland are the smartphone.

There are two basic reasons why this trend is happening and will become pervasive and controlling:

• Technology The perpetual digital connection to everything, which can provide us an easy apparent answer, rather than make us devise one of our own.
• Human nature We gravitate towards convenience, good enough, emotional feedback, least action and distractions.

We are creating two knowledge worlds. There is the Knowosphere enveloping the world. It is a collection of all digitized and stored knowledge. The Knowosphere cross-references almost infinite combinations so any piece of knowledge, image or scene is available instantly.

The other knowledge world is all around us. It is writing on paper, books, movies, television, information stored in computers, and, in general, knowledge stored by traditional means and not in the clouds or Knowosphere. It also includes direct experience and social interaction.

The trend is to use the Knowosphere whenever possible and to forget about processing and using information via conventional media. At the very least, one can still duplicate, access and store the information and knowledge in the conventional media. Good examples of this today are doctors notes and medical records. In the older and more traditional practices, the information would be hand written into medical charts and transcribed to digital files later. Newer and larger practices currently send their patient information directly into digital files.

There is a need for a new kind of thinking in the face of the recently available mountains of datadata instantly accessed and conveniently packaged like a supermarket consumer product. In order to break loose from a steady diet of packaged information, you must fire up your imagination and embrace new ideas. You should always think critically and search for the truth. From that start, there are new frontiers in education, creativity and understanding of culture.

In a sense, we are all Alice. In this book, we are all going to discover the possibilities and pitfalls in Cyberland.