What is an infomancer?
I have listed on the top of my page a tag line that says: “Musings of an infomancer.” What is an infomancer? Well, I’d like to think I made the term up. And until just a minute ago when I did a google search on the term, I was sure I had, but I had, in fact, not.
According to this site infomancy is:
Infomancy n. 1.The field of magic related to the conjuring of information from the chaos of the universe. 2.The collection of terms, queries, and actions related to the retrieval of information from arcane sources.
I disagree slightly with this term. I would define it as such:
Infomancy n. 1. The field of magic related to the conjuring and manipulation of information into useful forms. 2. The collection of terms, queries, and actions related to the retrieval, categorization, and manipulation of information.
Arcane sources be damned. It really doesn’t matter where the information comes from or even if it is factual. Ok, so I can dig that. I’m proclaiming I know magic and use this magic to uh… do stuff to information. That brings me to my next point:
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. - Arthur C. Clark
I’m not saying technology is magic. Nor vice versa. What I am trying to say by pulling that quote up is: Does it matter? If I expend the equivolent time and resources into producing relevant information out of seemingly the ether, does it matter how I did it so long as the information is useful? Unless you have a particular hang up about me not calling up some arcane being and using “real” magic, then probably not. (And if so, aren’t you glad I’m just using the plain old human ways?)
So what qualifies me as an infomancer? I got a secret decoder ring out of my cereal box two days before I started this blog. It lets me see all the hidden messages out there.
In all seriousness, I’m a computer scientist. I’ve spent years and years programming information systems that take data out of various databases, slice it up and serve it on a silver platter. I also built systems that let people manipulate and update data so that it stays useful. I speak the ancient and forbidden language of the computer. I like to use that ancient language to conjure and manipulate information.
I’m also a bibliophile. I love books. I love facts, stories, information, and data of all shapes and sizes. I love how we as humans interact with it and can become more human through it. It’s all extremely fascinating stuff and I make it my life’s work.
