Only if a topic is relevant, is there a need to know. Relevance, of course, must be determined, which consists of establishing priorities and making choices. But after that, irrelevant information can be ignored, and we can overcome the stress which so often accompanies overload. The recognition of limits, however, need not be the cause of pessimism-quite the contrary in fact. Just as the laws of mechanics facilitated the design of effective skyscrapers and space vehicles, and the laws of energetics facilitated the design of efficient steam engines and solar furnaces, so the laws of informatics will be used to guide the design of productive information systems, everything from data capture to artificial intelligence.
Intelligence is the mental management of semiotic systems.
And wisdom consists of the life lessons of semiotic management. Synthesis moves in the direction from data to wisdom. In the process, generality is gained as detail is lost. Analysis moves in the direction from wisdom to data. As all of these categories of information become increasingly available, the need to pick and choose will grow ever more apparent.