Properties of Information

1 Inconsumable

Goods disappear through use.
Information does not disappear.
It remains unchanged however much it is used.
Read this.
Read it again.
And again and again and again…
You can have your cake and eat it too!

2 Untransferable

Transfer a physical good from A to B.
It is moved completely from A to B.
Transfer information and the original information remains at A.
Do you copy?

3 Indivisible

Goods can be divided and used.
Electricity and Water.
Information can only be used when it constitutes a set.
Half a drawing will not describe an entire building.
Half a sentence will not

4 Accumulative

To accumulate goods don't use them.
Information cannot be consumed or transferred.
Use it again and again, it accumulates anyway.
Information quality can be improved by adding new information.

All information, whether in the Medusa form of a physical drawing or as Midas in the computer, has these four properties. However, the acceleration of information interchange, through the use of computers, has added four more properties…


The Future of Architecture Table of Contents
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