Information Overload. Kissinger Predicted It Would Become Worse 

What a wonderful coincidence... Ive been having this dilemma for a couple of weeks now... I am 27, so not that old...but feel like people have lost the ability to think by themselves. I am doing my phd in etnography and recently attended a course for bachelors. People born in 2002. They could not answer a very simple question asked by the professor. The task was to read a 4 page article and answer 3 questions. They could not do it. They had 10 minutes to read a 4 page article. My God... Even when the professor told the students where to search for the info (even told them which paragraph should they read once more).... they could not answer. I am very scared about the future. Once the elderly die, there will be no broad thinking people, I am afraid. Best wishes from Poland and thank you so much, as always. Sorry for any mistakes.

This was in 1979 and Kissinger is nearly 100 years old today 😮

Fun fact- The Zucker brothers tried really really hard to get Kissinger to appear in the movie Airplane as the guy who is sitting in the taxi waiting for the driver to come back, but he wouldn’t do it. The role was given to Howard Jarvis who wrote prop 13 in California that limited property tax increases.

Such a terrific channel you have created, Mr. Hoffman. From bluegrass to Bob Dylan to information overload, yours is truly must watch, consider, and absorb viewing. Danke!

Man, if he felt overloaded 40+ years ago, his head would explode today in 2023 !

I remember seeing this around 1984 in my high school Psychology class. We saw this and Future Shock around the same time. Still rings very true today!

Love to see the birth of current issues we face

Yo seriously.. this video is a complete gem. Critical thinking is a key charactistic of proper inquiry. To ask the right questions is infinitely more powerful than learning to follow and obey reputable data sources. When scam invades, don't give up. Look for the light. The wisdom will guide your newfound knowledge and awareness. Don't be afraid to progress. Be afraid to move forward without asking valuable questions. Love.

Captivating, David thank you for your devout wisdom and push to inform us current gens on things we desperately need to learn from. This goes for all your content and videos. “Those who don’t learn from history, and doomed to repeat it”

Any man who quotes TS Eliot immediately gains my respect.

Information disease. First coined in the book "Snapping"

I don't know what my gratitude is worth, I am grateful though. Your archives are always fascinating subjects from which a lesson may be derived.

I'm deep in research around AR tech and this is a major issue. In organising and distilling information, there are inherent biases at play, where otherwise good data can be edited out. Today's information overload is very sinister. Our brains are like grey Blancmange as we 'keep on scrolling' in the name of cheap engagement. More power to you, David

It becomes more and more important to slow down, meditate and focus only on what's important.

I think I have information addiction! I'm constantly watching something or reading something and if I stop to do something I'm a bit agitated I'm not reading or watching something. I think it might be to do with having an enquiring mind, but it really can feel like a curse sometimes. Especially when so much we watch and read is negative (online mainly).

I don't envy anyone born into this era of social media.

Very interesting piece of footage! Thanks David! Industrial, then information! Makes me wonder what age/era could possibly come next? 🤔✌

There was a “tag” a few years ago that I haven’t seen in a while. “#fomo” - Fear of Missing Out.

Your videos are value content always something to learn from, from past to present. Your older stuff are a treasure to watch. Try not to miss any u post on RU-vid. There always neat to see and learn. Thanks for sharing David Film maker 🎥🎞️🙂

Thank you David for posting this!

Scary how relevant this is on the dawning of the age of AI.

Thanks for all the uploads. Some of these videos really make you think.

I do have information almost overload. It's cold and I am snowed in again! Thank you David. 👋😉👍

Thank You for sharing this information with us Mr Hoffman!

Ah Kissinger. Living proof of the phrase "The good die young"

This is very fascinating I recall there was a stander joke going around in the early 1980's about workers where threating to call in sick because of work related stress the excuse they use was I needed a day off for mental health. about ten years before "World Mental Health Day" was created on 10 October 1992. Thanks, David Hoffman.

David Hoffman information over load appreciate your videos Listening 🌼[Kissinger predicted this would Happen] From Mass USA TYVM 🇺🇸 David

Where have you been hiding this gem, why has it taken this long to share, and this was awesome, thank-you very, very much for sharing this. -Made my week!

Oh yeah great share 🤟🤟🤟

Mankind is so intelligent and so stupid at the same time. We have to develop solutions for problems we create by ourselves because we always have to go one step further only to prove ourselves we can go one step further. Even at the risk of burying the essence under a mountain of information. 🙄

If only there wasn’t so much censorship being bought. Thank you David

I wonder if Adam Curtis ever used your work in his docs

Libraries always had more information than we could absorb.

Incredible. So poignant and prophetic.

Wooooow I just found your channel and I’m in love. Thank you!!!

Thanks!

Wonderfull documentation Mr David Hoffmann

This is frightening. This is obviously all way before the internet. It's like in 1979 we are saying, "We like caffeine but at 300mg a day, we are too addicted to it." Then the internet takes off 1995-2000 and we say, "No, no, no we can handle it, bump me up to 600mg a day." Then smart phones come along and we have have access to everything, everywhere no matter where we are. "Let's round that up to an even 1000mg a day, please." Then social media comes along and, like a hyperconnected brain, we are inundated with indoctrination according to our clique, our tribe. "1,500mg please." Now with chatGPT being the 'briefer' that Kissinger is talking about. We are putting our trust ( ? faith ? ) in AI to be our mediator, or curator, making sense of the internet for us.

Goodness. I haven't added a video to favorites in a while. For me, the internet is one of the best and worst inventions I've experienced. This video has also reminded me of other problems as well, such as--- too much convenience causing natural and traditional human skills to atrophy, and planned obsolescence.

The whole video is awesome. The last 2 minutes is gold. It’s a serious issue.

We have more information than ever and we are collectively dumber than 40 years ago.

Cool… I remember seeing this video back when it was made. And you made it? Good job. I’d loved it years ago and watched it for a second time just last week. different context. I was happy to see Buckmimste Fuller speaking to you when he was about my age now. 68 Bucky was not interested or concerned about information overload. He was concerned about over specialization, which was a variation of information overload. And still is. with regard to our big picture of the world, our inability to see the connections of knowledge, ideas, thought, stories, creativity, art, etc.. He wrote his own personal view of mathematics throwing out every single rule, held by every mathematician for thousands of years. He asked the question to himself. What is the coordinate system that nature uses to perform its own mathematics on both microcosmic and macrocosmic levels, and every level in between? His two volume work Synergetics, it’s hard to come by on hardcopy because it’s no longer in print from McMillan. But it is online and accessible every page every link every sub link every sub sub link is connected in those works online. It’s quite a refreshing read that’s IMO. Not too many people share that view academics will say Fuller didn’t know anything about mathematics true he did not address mathematics on the level that mathematicians do. He did something crazy. He started over he reinvented the entire field of mathematics. math teachers were pissed, and they still are. If you can piss off a math teacher, you’ve gone far in life, it seems to me. I never got to meet Fuller, but I did get a chance to know and work with his collaborator in creating synergetics, EJ Applewhite, who joined Fuller after helping get the CIA launchand running the Beirut office office for them and watching his contemporary British counterpart get exposed as the highest level mole in the history of Great Britain. Applewhite’s specialty *was* information overload. He created the first manual filing system for the CIA. Damn he was good at it, but he shAred Fuller’s changing, and big views of everything. And he kept up a decades long correspondence with John LeCarre, as any good spy would.

Dave you are one of the gems of the internet

Such a great video

So this was a problem even then? Interesting. 🤔 Someone once said (I may be paraphrasing slightly) that _television will be remembered by history alongside the lead in the water pipes that drove the ancient Romans mad._ I like to think *the Internet,* at least in its current state, has supplanted that notion by a country mile. I try to cut the chaff, since I'm curious by nature and like to find out new things, but for the most part, the Internet is a maddeningly vast space where trivia rules. Can be fun, but you need a lifeline to pull you out when you get too deep. Stellar work, David. 🙂

The older I've got I have figured out the Les i know the better off I am 😁👍

When a 1360 ft skyscraper collapses what is the important information? The number of people who died or the distributions of steel and concrete? Didn't the designers have to have to get the mass distributions correct and write it down somewhere? The NCSTAR1 report by the NIST is 10,000 pages. It does not even specify the total amount of concrete in the towers. Check it yourself.

Great video. 🧠👏

Wow.... so timely in 2023!!

You got big data right here. And the correct evaluation of its value.

Well the shift from generalists to specialists can also be attributed to a growing population, not to diminish the main point.

Kissinger had a lot he knew which led to some disastrous results in U.S. foreign policy of the latter 20th Century.

Watching all your documentaries Mr hoffman realize things haven't really changed in the last 40 years just different faces we got the struggles are still her

A lot of valid points here. The issue seems to be that the so-called "generalists" or "specialists" that have been designated by those who own and control the information and the flow of this information are aligned with corporate interests, political interests, military interests above all else and all of these interests are, for the most part, aligned. By the time the lay person has a "knowledgable" outline of some important information, it is skewed by whatever corporate, political or military (and more, in combination as well) interests have in putting the information out there in the first place. This is why people don't trust the media. It has become even more complex too with the kind of data that comes from tech users, particularly when it comes to social media but also people's online shopping habits etc. Those who have been able to capitalise on the huge volumes of information and data have also been able to control it, manipulate the public's understanding of it in order to serve an agenda (such as going to war), to sell things to people, to get people to dislike another group of people, to get them to vote in a certain way and to gather information on people and essentially be able to spy on them. This is the tragedy of it - due to the commodification of everything under capitalism, "information" and "data" have become incredibly valuable commodities, and modern technology has provided more information and data than anybody could have ever predicted. What was not foreseen here was how this data and information would be used. Some of the interviewees spoke of decent, well-meaning people who would be able to interpret this information for us and deliver us - lay people - objective accounts of what it all means, but what they didn't understand, or perhaps refuse to understand, is that all of this just became a business and it has made people into billionaires. It is a shame. Capitalism doesn't wait for wisdom - as soon as it sees the chance to make a profit, any moral concerns or wise thoughts on the matter are set aside as business models are put into place. In terms of the technology available to us now and our logistical capabilities, imagine what we could achieve if we put the needs of human beings before the needs of shareholders? Instead of using communications technologies to create spaces for meaningless "culture wars", we could use that technology to include everybody in democratic decision making - without the interference of hostile media who want to divide us - and this could include ECONOMIC democracy. I can order something online and it will get to my door the next day - we could feed the world if we put that need above all of the others. It is a tragedy.

well, I might have been around in 1979 but it is quite odd to think that this could have been made last week. Yes some are going in the wrong direction. But not all...that is where wisdom comes in. Back atchya ChatGPT.

I wonder what younger people would thing of this video. This is so pertinent today! Knowledge is not wisdom 🙏

It’s worse than ever!

people seemed so much more calm and articulate back in these times

Technically, every time you see a friend share a post on Instagram - it’s “information” and our devices are just organising it and sorting it. we all take on too much useless information. And we’re programmed to think it’s normal.

HENRY HIT IT RIGHT ON1

Day by day this becomes more insightful. Too much information, not enough discernment

After watching this clip I want to find the documentary about General Magic and Marc Porat.

Henry is too cool for this century

Extremely intriguing…profound. I feel more knowledgeable about knowledge after watching this. Neuro Link etc will attempt to “upgrade” humanity as to attain & contain all the world’s knowledge in a brain chip and or hand chip

How eloquent.

I have learned from this 6min video more than many 1-hour videos

i Think remember that day. our political science instructor at BHSC may showed this for class, or PBS by 1980 showing ? if not a common thought said by smart folks and interlecutuals.

Good

Well done. I Tweeted.

I don’t recognize all the speakers but I do see Walter Wriston.

So this is my problem 😕

I show this stuff to my kid.

If anything, we have more poorly educated generalists who feel a cursory Google search is knowledge useful enough to bonk the head of their nearest neighbor

The woman that speaks towards the end is amazing (blue dress)

This is true prophecy to future generations, expressed with the quality of speech, wisdom and erudition of the past.

Social media algorithms and personalised recommendations force feed us polarising content and get us to spend more money on shit we don't need while nicely mapping every person's life to use for their own purposes

I was never a fan of Kissinger. Too much of a war hawk but he was nice looking as a young man

As a customer success manager for a company I helped my good friend start, being in charge of multiple fortune 100’s, including running a project for one of the big airlines and being the central point of contact for about 17,000 pilots and occasionally cabin crews, I can officially say I have information overload at the moment. 😑

I don't think this is a problem really. We only need to know about one specific part of a subject at a time. You'd be lucky if you found more than 3 different opinions about it. Nobody needs to know everything about everything.

We had a saying in the military, KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid. I would rather read about something than watch a video for the most part. I can scan it and decide whether it is useful or just a waste of my time. I watch most videos on double speed.

Is information overload to blame for the rise of authoritarianism? The authoritarian tells the people "they alone can fix the problem". This seems a simple way to go when overwhelmed.

I seem to get lost in translation. Even if someone is stupid to me in my own head I believe they believe their own bs. Which is almost more respectful than not even saying anything. Or trying.

I remember Henry Kisingjer in the 70s. We he spoke my parents would listen Intensely

Kissinger used this as an opportunity

So kids in Africa vs kids in Europe which ones are exposed to information overload and which ones are smarter or otherwise. It is a debate

People have been saying this since the printing press was invented.

If I could give 10 thumbs up I would.

...and then the search engine was invented and it packages exactly the information you were looking for... so I guess they were right for about 15 years or so.

dunning-kruger effect

The moral of this video for me is this, always be in the pursuit of wisdom over knowledge. The difference? An intelligent person may not know that they are lacking wisdom, a wise person will most certainly know if they are lacking in intelligence. Someone said that despite all the knowledge that Society has their fingertips we are now more stupid than ever. I disagree. Despite all the knowledge that Society has at their fingertips we are now more FOOLISH then ever

Information became more opinion and more propaganda then actual and factual information. And Kissinger is right on everything he is saying.

Must be 100× worse by now

I’m 56 & we were taught critical thinking skills. I don’t think they teach that anymore.

Kissinger predicted that Bangladesh will be a basket case. Well he was wrong.

this shit is crazy

Anyone still use their instincts?

I feel like this guy at ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AYbKxTyNFqc.html was the inspiration for Agent Smith from the Matrix. maybe...

Generalists make the best sandwiches.

Anything Kissinger I can instantly disregard. He's the Roger Ebert of politics with all his bad takes.

Dubious 😂