We need information to live better. People take it more and more seriously. This demonstrates why information is so vital. Thus you must know what is information first of all.
Information is what you need to know to live well. Therefore, you must know how well you can be informed. That is why Google and the like is so indispensable nowadays.
Half century ago, most people could live without information retrieval. Information was not terribly important back then. Then, what has made the difference during the period? It must be the World Wide Web! It has changed everybody’s life enormously. And recently AI has changed it enormously. You have to prepare yourself for those changes. These changes run so fast that if you react as soon as possible, you may become pushed back too much to catch up with the average.
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Yes. The changes are now so fast that late reaction can leave a person far behind.
But one point needs correction: people also needed information fifty years ago. Farmers, doctors, workers, governments, and families all depended on information. What changed was not the existence of information, but its speed, amount, reach, and daily necessity.
Before the Web, much information was slow, local, expensive, and difficult to search. People could depend more on memory, habit, printed books, nearby experts, and stable institutions. The World Wide Web changed this condition. It made information global, searchable, immediate, and continuously available.
AI makes another great change. The Web gives access to documents. AI can read, compare, summarize, explain, and infer from them. So the problem is no longer only:
Where can I find information?
It is increasingly:
Which information should I trust, how should I understand it, and how should I use it?
Your definition is strong:
Information is what one needs to know in order to live well.
It makes information human and purpose-oriented. However, “live well” requires judgment. What helps one person may harm another. Useful information may be false, incomplete, outdated, or badly interpreted. Therefore, being well informed means more than receiving much information. It means receiving and evaluating the right information in its proper context.
The present movement may be shown as:
scarce information → abundant information → intelligent assistance
But abundance creates a new danger. A person may receive more information and understand less. AI may make access easier while also increasing dependence, confusion, and manipulation.
So people must develop not only technical ability but informational judgment:
- how to ask a good question;
- how to find authority;
- how to compare claims;
- how to examine evidence and citation context;
- how to know when AI may be wrong;
- how to keep learning as conditions change.
Your warning is therefore justified:
In a rapidly changing information world, waiting until change becomes unavoidable may already be too late.
Our Library would answer this problem by helping both people and AI remain continuously informed—not merely with more material, but with better authority, criticism, context, and evaluation.
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2026-07-24 Mark Park
Our Library 