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Headrick, | Headrick, Daniel R. When Information Came of Age: Technologies of Knowledge in the Age of Reason and Revolution, 1700-1850. Oxford UP, 2000. | ||
There have always been numerate people, for merchants and bureaucrats had been keeping accounts since ancient times. What was new in the Age of Reason and Revolution was the idea that numbers could be used to analyze something other than money, such as population, health and illness, nature, or even divine Providence | Enlightenment project *required* new forms of information gathering (and on history of word "information" in the period see [[Duguid 2015]] | ||
Headrick - 1 - When_Information_Came_of_Age_Technologies_of_Knowl..._----_(1._Information_and_Its_History) | |||
Information implies an assemblage of data, such as a telephone book, a map, a dictionary, or a database—not random data, however, but data organized in a systematic fashion. | |||
Page 2 | |||
…information systems. By systems, I mean the methods and techniques by which people organize and manage information, rather than the content of the information itself. Information systems were created to supplement the mental functions of thought, memory, and speech. They are, if you will, the technologies of knowledge. | |||
Page 2 | |||
Thus, we must be careful to distinguish the forms that information can take from the systems with which it is handled. | |||
Page 3 | |||
To classify, process, store, retrieve, or transmit information quickly or with less cost and effort, it must be compressed, codified, and organized in a systematic fashion. In the process, narrative, descriptive, or decorative information is turned into data. | |||
Page 4 | |||
To be sure, machines are important in explaining the acceleration of information in certain periods of history, but they are not the only possible causes. Between the printing revolution and the nineteenth century lies a period that was less significant for its information-handling machines but just as fertile in new information systems. This was the Age of Reason (the late seventeenth century and most of the eighteenth), followed by the Age of Revolution, from 1776 to the mid– nineteenth century. This is the period that this book covers, because it sets the stage for the electromechanical processing of information in the nineteenth century and its electronic processing in the twentieth. In other words, the cultural revolution in information systems (the “software,” if you like) preceded its material (“hardware”) revolution. | |||
Page 6 | |||
Why did new information systems appear in the period 1700–1850? The development of information systems in these years cannot be blamed on machines that people had to find ways to use, as in our own computer-driven age. Instead, it was a cultural change driven by social, economic, and political upheavals. | |||
Page 7 | |||
The rising demand for information was stimulated by the growth of population, production, and trade on both sides of the Atlantic. | |||
Page 7 | |||
The political systems of the eighteenth century are often described as moving from absolutism to enlightened despotism. Absolutism refers to the divine right of monarchs to rule in their own personal or dynastic interests, as though these were the only interests they had to consider. In contrast, enlightened despotism implied that monarchs ruled for the benefit of their subjects. Knowing what was in the interest of one’s subjects, however, required a lot more information than knowing one’s own personal or family interests. | |||
Page 7 | |||
The supply of information never “satisfies” the demand. In the first place, even when new information answers one question, it often only whets the appetite for more information. Furthermore, a great deal of information is too valuable to disseminate, and those who possess it make great efforts to keep it to themselves… | |||
Page 9 | |||
The increasing amount of information, in turn, elicited innovations in the methods of handling it— in other words, in information systems.11 Hence the development of scientific taxonomy, cartography, lexicography, statistics, and postal services that characterized the Age of Reason and Revolution. | |||
Page 9 | |||
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"There have always been numerate people, for merchants and bureaucrats had been keeping accounts since ancient times. What was new in the Age of Reason and Revolution was the idea that numbers could be used to analyze something other than money, such as population, health and illness, nature, or even divine Providence" | |||
Latest revision as of 20:56, 16 May 2025
Headrick, Daniel R. When Information Came of Age: Technologies of Knowledge in the Age of Reason and Revolution, 1700-1850. Oxford UP, 2000.
Enlightenment project *required* new forms of information gathering (and on history of word "information" in the period see Duguid 2015
Headrick - 1 - When_Information_Came_of_Age_Technologies_of_Knowl..._----_(1._Information_and_Its_History)
Information implies an assemblage of data, such as a telephone book, a map, a dictionary, or a database—not random data, however, but data organized in a systematic fashion.
Page 2
…information systems. By systems, I mean the methods and techniques by which people organize and manage information, rather than the content of the information itself. Information systems were created to supplement the mental functions of thought, memory, and speech. They are, if you will, the technologies of knowledge.
Page 2
Thus, we must be careful to distinguish the forms that information can take from the systems with which it is handled.
Page 3
To classify, process, store, retrieve, or transmit information quickly or with less cost and effort, it must be compressed, codified, and organized in a systematic fashion. In the process, narrative, descriptive, or decorative information is turned into data.
Page 4
To be sure, machines are important in explaining the acceleration of information in certain periods of history, but they are not the only possible causes. Between the printing revolution and the nineteenth century lies a period that was less significant for its information-handling machines but just as fertile in new information systems. This was the Age of Reason (the late seventeenth century and most of the eighteenth), followed by the Age of Revolution, from 1776 to the mid– nineteenth century. This is the period that this book covers, because it sets the stage for the electromechanical processing of information in the nineteenth century and its electronic processing in the twentieth. In other words, the cultural revolution in information systems (the “software,” if you like) preceded its material (“hardware”) revolution.
Page 6
Why did new information systems appear in the period 1700–1850? The development of information systems in these years cannot be blamed on machines that people had to find ways to use, as in our own computer-driven age. Instead, it was a cultural change driven by social, economic, and political upheavals.
Page 7
The rising demand for information was stimulated by the growth of population, production, and trade on both sides of the Atlantic.
Page 7
The political systems of the eighteenth century are often described as moving from absolutism to enlightened despotism. Absolutism refers to the divine right of monarchs to rule in their own personal or dynastic interests, as though these were the only interests they had to consider. In contrast, enlightened despotism implied that monarchs ruled for the benefit of their subjects. Knowing what was in the interest of one’s subjects, however, required a lot more information than knowing one’s own personal or family interests.
Page 7
The supply of information never “satisfies” the demand. In the first place, even when new information answers one question, it often only whets the appetite for more information. Furthermore, a great deal of information is too valuable to disseminate, and those who possess it make great efforts to keep it to themselves…
Page 9
The increasing amount of information, in turn, elicited innovations in the methods of handling it— in other words, in information systems.11 Hence the development of scientific taxonomy, cartography, lexicography, statistics, and postal services that characterized the Age of Reason and Revolution.
Page 9
--
"There have always been numerate people, for merchants and bureaucrats had been keeping accounts since ancient times. What was new in the Age of Reason and Revolution was the idea that numbers could be used to analyze something other than money, such as population, health and illness, nature, or even divine Providence"