Field Guides, Bigfoot, and the desire to grasp life
“… Guides do not, however, deceive their users into thinking that life is fully “knowable.” The National Science Foundation estimates that only two to 40 percent of the total species on Earth have even been identified. A true understanding of the planet’s biodiversity, then, remains elusive. Classify away and you’ve still only scratched the surface. This tension, between the desire to grasp life and its ultimate ungraspability, plays out on the pages of the field guide and in their use. (…)
Subsequent naming can offer only a fleeting illusion of knowability. Yet ephemerality does nothing to discourage identification; instead, it leaves us wanting more.”
How do we approach assessing the appropriate technology for a particular situation? Are video podcasts really necessary for birding? This article covers a lot of ground, from the history of field guides to some of the more philosophical questions about human information interaction and why we pursue study in this field.
Guiding Light by Jesse Smith, from The Smart Set from Drexel University, August 22, 2008.
This may touch on issues discussed in lectures:
5. CONCEPTS & CATEGORIES (9/15)
7. CONTROLLED NAMES AND VOCABULARIES (9/22)
8. CLASSIFICATION (9/24)
Shawna Hein Said,
September 2, 2008 @ 11:02 pm
interesting. check out one of our last years’ masters projects, http://www.inaturalist.org. they use a combination of ids (via an initial base and later user extended ontology) and tags or “markings” but these only for “fun” adjectives about the animal.