Lexon is focused on the relationship between information, knowledge, choices and risk.
Lex is based on the hypothesis that today’s approaches to information and knowledge management are inadequate. Even with real-time information processing, the pressure at the seams of technology is palpable. The volume and velocity of data creation is expanding exponentially and pushing systems to their limits. The management and processing of this data are increasingly being left to algorithms or even algorithms of algorithms. It has often been said that the future is writing itself, but in the age of artificial general intelligence (AGI), data is writing itself and processing itself. In this age of rapid data generation and increasingly specialized knowledge, a new approach to information management and collaboration is needed.
Humans still have human brains with all of its capabilities and limitations. While we have built many tools and systems to augment human capability, it is ultimately humans that have to put the pieces together in order to make something new and valuable.
We Are Human (WAH)
Finding the valuable information at the right time is what provides lasting leverage. But information is a constantly moving target and filtering the signal from the noise is not an easy task. It is human insight that delivers insight and innovation not machine learning.
The Information “Not So” Super Highway
While information travels fast, it does not have on-ramps, exits, signs and maps. Structurally, the Internet may have some similarities to the highway system, but information really doesn’t. Information moves across the Internet at fiber optic speed observed by anyone who has the right level of access. But the value of information is not the speed of transmission (except in high finance), it is how it is used to make new connections. The connections between bits of information are often what leads to the creation new knowledge. This is what HUMANS are good at!
Don’t Be So Quick to Judge
With the volume of information produced today, the temptation is to look at information quickly, assess its value and move on. Some people have systems of storing information that they want to refer back to at a later date, but even deciding if something is worth coming back to and flagging it in some way takes time.
The pressure to keep up and the fascination with the “New Thing” forces many of us to make snap decisions about information. This is both necessary and insufficient.
The value of information varies with time. You can be too early, or you can be too late. It all makes a difference. How do you know what you are looking at and how to spot things that you aren’t looking for at the moment? How do you focus on the moment and keep your eyes and mind open for new information that you don’t have that might actually be way more important.
The Information Skill Shot
Information management is not new with the computer age or the age of the Internet. It is a core human capability and is key to human survival. The systems that we have built for information management have evolved through the years, but humans still process information in largely the same way.
Humans have always acted on a combination of prior knowledge, new information available, intuition, risk tolerance and the ability to make choices at the appropriate moment to achieve their goal at the moment — whether it was escaping an immediate threat or working toward some longer-term goal. Information systems have moved from unwritten, to documented, to digital, to algorithmic, and now to multi-algorithmic.
With data and artificial intelligence (AI) in nearly all aspects of life, it is important to think downstream a bit from the data and the algorithms. Is all this efficiency and so-called optimization based on information and data counterproductive?
Finding the New Information Path
Lex is about a new path for using information systems in our lives and our organizations. Creating systems that empower and enable rather than deferring to the algorithms that will hinder insight, innovation and creativity. There is not one right answer for everyone, but there are a lot potentially wrong answers.
The goal of Lex is to explore systems and processes that leverage information, but also to look beyond the data to venture off the path to find better solutions than the data will ever show you.
It is a hypothesis and an exploration. It is not an answer, but rather a question that we should be asking. If any of this rings true to you, I’d love to hear from you.