Types and Kinds of Information


In my previous post on Capitalism and The Free Market I realized I must expound on the types of information. Two which I identified are individual-useful and species-useful information.

Individual-Useful Information


Individual useful information is information that is useful to the individual, but not useful to the species. An example of this might be, for example, what the individual had for breakfast the previous morning. Or, how the individual feels about socialism or capitalism. Or, who the parents of the individual are. This information is not immediately useful as species-information.

However, individual information may become species information under certain circumstances. For example, if what you had for breakfast could hold the key to a plague that has been sweeping the planet. The reader might have noticed that this situation is exaggerated and highly unlikely.

So, what can we infer from individual-useful information? The individual useful information is made up of the experiences and current personal feelings and activities of the individual. This inhabits to social world, and has little to do with scientific knowledge at the outset. Attempting to ascertain individual useful information without first proving that it is actually species useful information is bound to cause trouble, and is furthermore completely useless. Hence, the need for privacy.

Species-useful information

Species useful information can be best stated as discoveries of so-called scientific fact. What is the strength of gravity on earth? What exactly is time? How much money did a certain company make in the 4th quarter?

In case the reader hadn't noticed. Species-useful and individual useful information bear a resemblance to the idea of positive and normative statements which I expounded upon earlier. Positive statements being statements of fact, and normative statements being those of opinion. Opinion is the realm of the individual and individual-useful information. While species-useful information inhabits the realm of the positive world.

It is true that these two forms of information can transform into one another. The individual can use species-useful information to support his opinion, and the collective can require individual useful information to ascertain species useful-information.

The point here is that, for the most part, these two kinds of information are distinct. Also, for reasons I outlined in the need for a private sphere in an earlier post, it is to the advantage of Informationalists that the private sphere exist and be left to cultivate the individual. Abuse of individual-useful information can corrupt or stagnate species-useful information, and so should be approached with extreme caution.