In the past, a leader's main problem was the accurate and timely receipt of battlefield information. Quality information is the key to good decision making. However, the problem today, is too much information. The information age provides the leader with unprecedented information from every imaginable source and in mind-numbing detail. Unfortunately, there is a very finite limit to the amount of information the human brain can usefully process.
Machines can collect data in quantities that far exceed that limit.
For example, satellite reconnaissance has already collected more imagery than humans will ever be able to review, even if imaging stopped today. The human brain, faced with more data than it can process, will automatically filter out what it considers unimportant. Only a small subset of data received will be processed as information, thereby impacting the decision making process. The challenge for leaders is to make the natural filtering process a conscious effort rather than an unconscious reaction. Leaders need to make hard choices in advance about what kinds of information they need and reject the trivia that now floods into the modern tactical operations center.