Method's of information retrieval and how it causes disagreement amongst people

      The method of information retrieval, or MIR, is the tool that we use to not only extract information from our surroundings (by physical verification, deductions, and inferences), but also to gain knowledge by deductions and inferences that create knowledge from within our own knowledge pool (set).

      The word "knowledge" was shown with italics above because it is difficult to say whether or not it is knowledge that we are gaining through the use of various MIR's or just information. As an example, in the clay classic cartoon "The adventures of Mark Twain", Eve points out in one story that Adam is a good companion "because he knows a lot, even though most of it is untrue". What is it that he "knows", if it is untrue? Either way, She seems to think that just because something is untrue, it is still valuable information, or knowledge even. The point being that knowledge isn't necessarily about something true, certain, or definite - it is simply information in our information or knowledge pool. And this makes sense because it would be strange if everything we knew was true. It would be nice, i guess, if this were the case, but I'm sure we are sometimes wrong about things, but believe it anyway (or hold it in our knowledge pool as a truth regardless). To say that something is "true" or "false" anyway, is only saying that your picture of something matches up with the actual thing that it represents in the world that is outside you. If your picture does not match up, or properly represent the actual object (or not represent the actual object enough, or represent it up to one's comfort level) then it is still information and knowledge none the less. The idea here is that stored ideas are information and thus part of what we know. Of course the human brain, for the most part, is able to differentiate between truth and falsehood, fiction and non-fiction, etc... but within what we think we know as "true", we sometimes hold inaccurate pictures of the world (and the universe) and we call this information knowledge. The non-fiction part of our brain, things that are made up, inaccurate but useful or amusing pictures of the world, or some imaginary world, these things are surely information as well, and not quite knowledge. But because we never quite know whether or not it is knowledge that we hold in this way, or information, the terms "knowledge" and "information" are unfortunately interchangeable in too many cases.

      Regarding different MIR's, a project could be made to isolate different types of MIR's and to maybe see just how many types there are (how many different kinds people are using). This study would result in still a larger and more complex question(s) regarding the system of information retrieval that any one individual is using, in that individuals are not using just one MIR, or even just one MIR at a time, but instead a mix of various methods of information retrieval all the time. The only way an individual could be categorized by their use of MIR's is by observing certain MIR's that they may favor in general, or that they may favor in specific situations, MIR's that they rely on when they are happy, depressed, in this state or that state, etc... But an individual can never be described as using only this MIR or only a few (I am assuming that there are many different types of MIR's, most of them subtle variations of one another which are caused by subtle cultural or social differences. And in the case of vary different MIR's, such as faith based MIR's vs. observation based MIR's, these would usually be caused by large differences in a person's cultural upbringing compared to another person's, or differences in personality, differences in social class, who a person lives with, and other outside and internal forces. The assumption here is that MIR's are created by people and are their own systems or methods, they are not established external proven knowledge gaining systems or anything else that extreme. MIR's are as much a part of a person as their personality, in that the way that a person gains information and creates knew information is a huge part of how their personality is and develops (if you knew different things altogether, if you believed different things altogether, you would be a different person, altogether).

      So why the disagreement between different answers to questions (as described as the third category of question)? This disagreement arises from the use of different MIR's, and the tendency for different MIR's to extract different information from situations that are the same or similar, or their tendency to arrive at different conclusions and inferences from a similar or same set of information. This means that depending on what MIR is used, different information will be generated, regardless of if the information being processed is the same for both MIR's. Ok, so that is how we generate different answers to questions. Here is why we go further then that and disagree and argue over it. Depending on a multitude of variables (personality, culture, society, family, friends, and more) different individuals will use different MIR's and experience different comfort levels with how accurate they think the generated information is. Some people are very comfortable with the accuracy of specific MIR's, and others are not, that is why we argue and disagree, because the very root of how we gain information (knowledge even) and are comfortable with the accuracy of it is different amongst us. We do not see the world the same because we have built different pictures of the world through the use of different MIR's. How can we find any harmony if the world we think we live in is not the same in all of ours heads? Understanding the way you process information, and the way that others process information is one of the key steps in creating harmony amongst ourselves.

freestylethought

a. dempsey

portal leap