Has Information Lost Its Value?

Has Information Lost Its Value?

Condition of Virtuality

Reading the essay The Condition of Virtuality by N. Katherine Hayles I could not help but get the feeling that I was reading cheesy science fiction. Beginning her argument, She states that information is at the heart of all. She explains that as technology advances so does information become easier to obtain. There are even examples in the paper of a “computerized Human” a computer that holds the consciousness of a human. However without all the crazy illustrations of science fiction I thing a valid point is being made. Information has now become so accessible that you can almost find anything online. So like the essay states, does that make information lose its value? In some ways I think it does. I think that we as a culture have begun to not take the information we have at our finger tips with much care. Back in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, scribes would write books by hand it was common that tops there may be ten copies of a book. The information contained in them was seen as vital. Long gone are the days where you were forced to do research on a subject on interest (unless it is for a class) but instead one looks for it on Google, or searches for it on Wikipedia. But I don’t know if that means that the information is worthless, no instead I think it simply means that it is more accessible to those who wish to search for it.