Information Age to Informatics Age

As I discussed balance and its importance in one of my previous posts, the best example of an imbalance is the present global recession.

One thing I like the most about this Information Age is that it pours humongous knowledge on things which have already happened in the past, but this doesn't suffice the present day need. Today, man wants to re-invent the inventions of the past to better utilize available resources, whether precarious, he wants to see end to end usage of his inventions. What better example can I quote than our cell phone (Mobile)? Communication is just one trivial aspect in present day mobiles.

This paves a demerit of this Age. Imagine that you invent something for a specific primary purpose and after the invention its secondary usage plays dominant. This means we don't know the usage of something which we are developing whether it is good or bad (the supposed primary purpose is always for good). Only when the inventions do enough badly, we capture the information about it and store it in the repository, in some cases an extra step is exercised to regulate the usage of that stuff.

Now that the plot is prepared, how is it responsible for global recession?

We have always looked at our past in case we require teachings, what if something comes up out of the record books? This is what has happened and has resulted in recession. Albert Edwards, amongst the elite economists in modern day world, made a bearish call about this downturn as early as in 1996. But the then world never noticed it because they were under the dot com boom mindset.

Sub prime mortgage has never been a new word to us; the only thing that was new this time was the form of investment which gave roots to this crisis.

If we dig into the past, there are instances as early as 1819 which give us the same picture. American settlers were occupying the eastern states at a very fast pace which resulted in a price rise of eastern lands so the dwellers started moving towards southern parts. Southern state's soil favours cotton crops and hence cotton became their livelihood. By 1816, cotton market picked its pace and by 1819 America was at its peak of exporting cotton. Cotton importing countries had to pay healthy amounts in lieu of cotton which compelled them to produce cotton on there own lands. Back in America, because of large exporting demands the supply increased but eventually by 1819 it reached its break even when the importers became self sufficient and the supply started overshooting demands. These settlers had got there lands on loans from the local state banks. Local state banks, wanting to cash every opportunity of making profits, distributed loans to any and every person who approached them. In addition they sold the securities that they got from farmers to the Central Banks. After this break even was reached, the prices of cotton came crashing down to an alarming level, observing this the Central Banks wanted to wash there hands from this so they pressurized state banks to return their sum of money which eventually led to local banks asking farmers to clear there debt. Farmers had already invested this money in cotton cultivation and had nothing to give.

Meanwhile the downfall of cotton prices also lowered the land prices. Overall there was a loss of money for the local banks and many of them had to succumb but this crisis was not that big in picture than what has happened during present recession period.

Just that instead of cotton farm loans it is Housing loans and we could not figure the way out of this mess. This is what I call a demerit of Information Age, we are just information gatherers in this age and not the information processors.

Conclusion: There is one positive outcome that we have knowledge with us. So why don't we move on into the next Age wherein we can think of

1. What can be the possible cons of my work?

2. What are the remedies/regulations that need to be formulated before I launch my work in public?

If we can answer both these questions I guess most of the modern day problems would be resolved.