Apr

1

Information overloadVisiting the Financial Times site today a pop up poll appeared asking me whether I thought a preemptive nuclear strike against Iran was a good idea. I decided to mull it over whilst I finished my pizza and meanwhile recalled the Peter Cook film, The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer.

This 1970 movie fairly accurately predicted the rise of a new style of prime minister (Tony Blair for example). In fact Rimmer became absolute dictator of the UK. The ploy he used to gain absolute power was to give people a choice on everything. They could vote on all the major issues of the day by pushing a button. Eventually they got so tired of this that everyone was happy just to let Rimmer take care of it.

In the case of these online polls I wonder if the movie was equally predictive, the danger not being that people will hand over their democratic rights, but rather they will vote the way they think they should on matters of such importance, and this in turn will influence ever more populist politicians.

There also seems to be an interesting paradox at work here. Increasing the amount of information and choice may actually reduce thinking and cause a greater reliance on memes and heuristics. There seems to be a clear application to trading here: information overload.


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