07 junho 2010

Infodimension

The infodimension is a concept I'm developing, of a dimension of the semiosphere where we move as we deal with information.

Moving on the infodimension affects the way we perceive things in the medium/long-term, somehow dimming our sensorial experience of the passage of time and of space boundaries.
Time is a measure of change, hence accelerated modifications denote less time. Present developments are being witnessed at such a brisk pace that their perceived time diverts from the regular time we are used to. So time loops through the infodimension, seeming to advance at a slower pace.
The modus with which the cognitive process gathers elements from real space, mapping them into an optimized landscape in the brain, also affects infodimension's topography. Thus, moving at high speeds in reduced areas conveys a sense of greater proximity.

The more you focus on the cognitive process the more you relativize time and space, eventually developing a sensation of everything here and now, like in Renata Lemos' nowdernism and Bruce Sterling's atemporality, and even that there is No Future anymore, as suggested by William Gibson.
The present zeitgeist is affected by the increasing speed at which we move through the infodimension, but though cultural changes are taking place faster than ever, they are happening in subtle steps, making them harder to perceive. As the memes flow, small changes spread everywhere, merging into many other processes, creating an illusion of no significant changes.

Another way to look at it is that it's like being in an airplane, moving at high speed but not feeling like you're moving at all. The airplane is moving in the infodimension. The good thing is that, even feeling like a different ethos, the infodimension takes part in the real world, just like time and space. So all significant changes are real(even when virtual), and will always be available in the real world.

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