what is its usefulness?
It gives us information on the nature of Pluto's historical development, its interaction with other objects in the far reaches of the Solar System, this allows us to improve our model of the mechanics of the universe.
We live in an age of information ..... more and more information without really having any better understanding of the universe and our lives.
We live in an age of data, that data can be interpreted into information with the insight, will and time. If you lack the insight or the will, or don't put the time in, it will remain meaningless data.
The original motivation for space exploration was about doing better than the Soviet Union and a little later it was about finding other places to colonize if the earth becomes uninhabitable.
For some people - particularly those agreeing the funding - it was about the race between the Soviet Union and the West. For many - perhaps most - of the people actually involved in the work it was about exploring the frontiers of knowledge, science, technology and human experience.
Now we know that we cannot possibly colonize any other planet in the solar system let alone other exoplanets. We now realize (I hope) that we are rooted to the earth and better look after it well if we want to continue to exist. Moving to other planets and exoplanets is out of the question.
... because reasons? Colonising other bodies in the solar system is far from beyond the question, and although the pressure would have to be extreme to consider the costs of extra-solar colonisation it's not beyond the realms of possibility, though it would be stretching current technology.
One point is that all information is not necessarily knowledge. By knowledge I mean something that helps us grow intellectually and is also useful to us in our lives. Knowledge should be about forming a big picture view of life in general by adding relevant information wherever necessary.....and our lives should figure in it in some way....IMO. Random information can be more of a clutter.
Agreed. I believe information theorist make this the differentiation between data (raw information, if you will) and information (interpreted data that, therefore, has a meaning).
Secondly, people can get addicted to information. Some people can actually start believing that all information is knowledge and derive pleasure from acquiring such information. Intellectual need is also just a need like hunger, sleep or sex. It is possible to get addicted to the pleasurable sensation we experience when we satisfy these needs.
An overstretch of the word 'addiction' - as it is when it's used in realtion to 'sex'. There is no 'addiction' to hunger, there can be a similar habit-forming behaviour with food.
The same thing can happen to the intellectual need also. Many people could begin to think that information is an end in itself...at any cost. This is questionable.
And what's the down-side? Part of the definition of addiction is that the desire is harmful - where is the harm in learning?
O.
