Chris Anderson's latest article in Wired about the lessening need for theory in science brought on a fit of cognitive hysteresis. I was pretty annoyed by the article, but didn't write anything as I wanted to make sure I had a clear, thoughtful post to put out (Chris is a smart guy and deserves it). I hope to be getting that post published soon.
For now, I'd like to point out an interesting artifact of the current world-o-media that we live in. This post, by Kevin Kelly, relating to Chris' article starts of thus:
There's a dawning sense that extremely large databases of information, starting in the petabyte level, could change how we learn things
I find this type of language quite strange. It sounds like a collective is experiencing this 'sense'. But who is this collective? What is the evidence that Kevin observes that results in this statement. This kind of language leverages authority but fails to support the statement - in fact the intuitive phenomenon that is imagined denies the need for any evidence.
Perhaps something for the Language Log?