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We hypostasize information into objects. Rearrangement of objects is change in the content of the information; the message has changed. This is a language which we have lost the ability to read. We ourselves are a part of this language; changes in us are changes in the content of the information. We ourselves are information-rich; information enters us, is processed and is then projected outwards once more, now in an altered form. We are not aware that we are doing this, that in fact this is all we are doing.

Philip Kindred Dick#56

RealityPerceptionIdentitySelfConsciousnessMeaningInformationLanguageMetaphysics

About this quote

What does it mean?
We treat information as physical objects, and changing them alters the message. We are part of this system, processing and projecting information without realizing it.
In plain terms
We turn data into things, and moving those things changes the message inside us.
What can you take from it?
Recognize that you are constantly processing and reshaping information.

Where it applies

  • studying systems
  • self-reflection
  • media analysis

Putting it to work

  • audit your inputs
  • question your assumptions
  • track your outputs

Questions to consider

  • How much of your identity is constructed from external data?
  • Are you aware of how you reshape information?

Another view

It oversimplifies human agency by reducing all action to information processing.

More from Philip Kindred Dick

  1. Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.

    Permalink to quote #55
  2. Sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane.

    Permalink to quote #57
  3. An EEG of a person watching TV shows that after about half an hour the brain decides that nothing is happening, and it goes into a hypnoidal twilight state, em…

    Permalink to quote #54

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