To own information is to own the world. Essay on the topic "Who owns the information, he owns the world"

As a preface:

The phrase in the title of the article became famous after one interesting story that took place in early XIX century.

At that time, Nathan Rothschild, the future founder of the English branch of the famous bankers and political figures of the Rothschilds, lived in England. At first, he successfully traded in textiles, and when this business became unprofitable, together with his brother Jacob, he founded his own bank "N.M. Rothschild & Sons".

The banking business proved to be more profitable, especially in 1814, when the British government began to finance the military campaign against Napoleon through the Rothschild Bank. Thanks to the bank, Marshal Wellington from England transferred huge amounts of money in gold (in a year they exceeded 11 million pounds), relieving clients of the risks associated with the transportation of money. Its free time brothers devoted to an exciting hobby - breeding pigeons. And it was the pigeons that helped them make a fortune after the Battle of Waterloo and the defeat of Napoleon.

June 1815. Europe is frightened by Napoleon's revenge, the stock exchanges of England are in a fever. All anxiously await how the last decisive battle between the French army and the troops of Marshal Wellington at Waterloo will end. The beginning of the battle was clearly for Napoleon, about which London was urgently informed. But the observers could not foresee that the Prussian corps of General Blucher would come to the aid of Wellington's army, which would decide the outcome of this battle. French troops I had to take flight. Napoleon was overthrown.

Nathan Rothschild, being an excellent strategist and analyst, had his own staff of observers who always followed the troops and sent him all the latest information about events using pigeon mail. After the Battle of Waterloo was won, the pigeons with a coded report were immediately sent to the owner, who within a few hours knew about the result of the battle.

The next day, early in the morning, Nathan Rothschild was on the London Stock Exchange and began to sell his shares en masse. Looking at him and not knowing that it was a bluff, all the holders of securities amicably followed his example, assuming that the battle was lost by the British. As a result, the London Stock Exchange began to literally burst with depreciated shares, which by the end of the day fell to almost zero. A similar operation, only on the Paris Stock Exchange, was carried out by another Rothschild - Jacob. Meanwhile, the devalued securities were hastily bought up by Rothschild's front agents.

A few hours later, when the outcome of the battle became known in London, the holders of the securities were shocked. Some, having learned this news and having lost entire fortunes, committed suicide, and the Rothschilds were able to earn more than 40 million pounds in one day and became the owners of a larger share of the entire British economy. At this time, the phrase that has become today a winged phrase was sounded - "who owns information, he owns the world"!
http://www.vsepoisk.ru/2011/01/blog-post_13.html

The story is beautiful, the truth is how much truth is in it, and how much fiction is hard to judge.

I have been following the market a lot less than usual in the last couple of weeks. Fatigue accumulated after a very active first quarter of 2012, I decided to take a short break. If I usually spent 4-5 hours a day reading company news, I looked for interesting ideas, I watched the charts, sometimes speculated during the day, now I practically don't read anything, so I’m scrolling through Caumont ... Because of this, I missed the idea of ​​granting Rosinter a franchise from McDonald’s, I almost missed Kubanenergo - I bought only 85 each, although when I started it was possible to spread the news about the deal for 77 more ... In general, it is very difficult to make money without information with my trading style. I try to read as much as possible about everything interesting that is happening on the market. I don't read any third-rate information so as not to clog my brains ... But my head still buzzes in the evening anyway)

Hunting on vacation) My wife and I are planning to go to Crete in June. Help the Greeks financially))) Who has a rest from the market? Or are there those who do not get tired of him?))

ZY I love to travel, I have traveled almost all over Europe. Last time was in Italy, even dashed off a trip report. I gave my friends and acquaintances to read it - it seemed like I liked it) Let it be here too - suddenly it will be useful to someone or it will just be interesting.

Over the past decade, we have often heard the same phrase. Say, "who owns the information, he owns the world." This is a wonderful slogan from a textbook on intelligence and counterintelligence. And what is interesting is that there is more than enough information, and the possession of the world does not come in any way. It is gratifying to eat money - pay for a pager, pay for a cellular connection, pay for the ability to receive text messages on a mobile, lay out for the Internet, fork out for books, magazines and newspapers. And the world still does not exist and does not exist. Either the slogan is wrong, or the content providers have conspired and stuff us with these fairy tales - that we terribly need and absolutely need to “want to know everything” and be aware of. Yes, we are trying! We pay money, read about what watch Sophia Loren bought and what the weather is like in Portugal today. We study crime reports and brochures. We collect books on the shelves, keep old magazines. We sew newspaper binders and arrange greeting cards into boxes. We know more and more, we strive to broaden our horizons and be erudite. Have you signed up for these eighteen great newsletters? How?! You haven't subscribed ?! Have you read this book? But this one? And that one? “And in the last issue ...”, “and yesterday on the sixth channel ...”, “on the first ...” News, notifications, messages about changes, TV and radio programs. New theories, new books, new ideas - they appear before you have time to study the old ones (you don't even know that they are outdated yet). You don't own anything - and you never will. Your destiny is a heap of printed, television and electronic rubbish, which you frantically try to digest - in vain, we note.

A couple of years ago I was very happy about the acquisition of the “Library in my Pocket” CD. It contained about ten thousand books that the lucky owners intended to read. Elementary experiment: take a piece of paper and start writing out all the books that you have read "from cover to cover." And if you write three hundred, you will be able to erect a monument. A person in his entire life, as a rule, reads no more than three hundred books - these are statistics. For the whole life! I fully admit that there are unique personalities who will master a thousand or more books. But there are only a few such people. And in the absolute majority, we read no more than three hundred books in our entire life and use a dictionary of two to three thousand words (out of a million possible). Why then ten thousand? Why all those books that are on the shelf and are waiting in the wings? All those files that are on the disk “just in case”? Are you sure you really need this?

You may be thinking that this is not a problem at all. Let's take a closer look at this situation.

What do we need when there is a lot of information?

At first- to keep it. You need either book shelves or disk space. The more “no problem”, the more space you need.

Secondly- information is difficult to store just like that, it needs to be ordered, structured. The more information, the more time it takes to sort and organize.

Thirdly: the more information, the more difficult it is to find in it what you really need at a given time.

Fourth- especially important information needs to be protected.

At a minimum, have a clear idea of ​​what is in to a greater extent needs preservation and careful attitude, and what less.

These self-evident requirements consistently take away your resources (space for books, folders for papers, free space on the hard drive), time (“put on shelves”, sort, shove) and labor costs (find, view, sort). But that is not all. Any information contains a certain amount of service and operational data that you are forced to store, regardless of their value to you. For example, a book's dust jacket and hardcover are irrelevant if the book itself talks about the theory of relativity. One note in a thick journal forces you to keep the entire journal in its entirety - or you will have to revolutionize the way of storing and organizing (cutting out the necessary publications, making filings) in a revolutionary way. In the library, you will stumble upon huge shelves with filing cabinets, which, in fact, only tell you what information is available and help you find it. And a text editor file can only consist of a third of the text itself, and everything else is service information "sewn" into it, which in most cases you do not find use or do not even know about its existence. As a result, you need to effectively manage not only basic information, but also service information. It also requires resources, time and labor.

But that's not all!

As a rule, only the current amount of information stored on your shelves and disks in the form of books, magazines and files is such that you are unable to describe or organize it. A third of the information will be out of date before you bring it into a more or less complete directory, database, binder, or archive. And the fifth part will be outdated before you get to know it, or outdated already the moment you receive it. All this gives rise to one very seditious thought: information should be filtered out at the time of your contact with her. All without exception. And the one that has no value at a given moment in time or for the next period (which can vary from an hour to several years) is subject to immediate destruction. Precisely destruction! I say this on New Year's Eve, New Age and New Millennium. The nearest information future is to receive only the information that you need “here and now”. And mercilessly deal with everything else, the prospects of which are vague or delayed in time.

I am convinced that such a phenomenon as “information hygiene” and “information ecology” still awaits us. And this, of course, is not about spam (letters you do not need, which you sometimes receive) and not about free newspapers that are thrown into your mailboxes or handed out on the street. In this case, everything is just simple, because spam is immediately sent to the trash. And the difficulty lies in the fact that there is information satiety and information obesity, which gives rise to two parallel problems. In the first case, today many people are already starting to delve into the abundance of information that is offered to them. It seems to me that this somewhat explains the phenomenon of endless attacks on any information project- saturation has already come, and now "and you do not have exactly the same, but with mother-of-pearl buttons?" Do you know, by the way, what Stalin did when he had absolutely no appetite? He went to the cinema and asked to show an episode of the film where Charlie Chaplin cooked soup from a shoe :-) In the second case, a person will lose the ability to adequately “digest” all that informational “mess” (porridge both literally and figuratively), which he absorbs in excessive quantities for life. The calorie content of the information product, its usefulness, the content of vitamins, the shelf life - all this is still waiting for us. The arrival of experts in this field is also waiting for us, who will teach us how to lose excess information weight and how to eat right.

Personally, I do not pretend to be such an expert, although for last years I have developed a fairly clear understanding of how to properly “eat” an ordinary average citizen so that he has a minimum of problems with excess weight, informational heartburn, heaviness in the stomach and other symptoms of malnutrition. I will not go deep into this topic, I will state it in the theses. Well, if you let me know that this topic is necessary and important, and the continuation is highly desirable, I will do so. Good? So…

Contact recognition

Without exception, all the information in which you come into contact requires an immediate assessment - how relevant and meaningful its content is at a given time. You may also know that “here and now” this information is irrelevant for you, but in some distant future it will inevitably (!) Be in demand by you. If you want an example, take the food analogy. You either know exactly when these products will be eaten, or do not buy them at all (we do not consider long-term storage products - either you buy them for reasons of economy, not relevance, or you buy the most typical products - sugar, coffee - which always should be in your home). Accordingly, either the information will be absorbed by you immediately or in an obvious period of time for you, or it will not be accepted by you.

Seriousness of intentions

When you buy a cake or juice, you do it with firm intention eat what you have acquired. You are not pursuing any other goals. When it comes to information, everything is different: you can manage to buy a cake and forget to eat it for six months, or even the rest of your life. Let's understand a simple thing: no cake, no milk, no complete collection the writings of Leo Tolstoy are not a deficit that needs to be bought for future use or just in case for “what if you need it”. You will get what you are looking for as soon as you really need it - only fresher and more appetizing.

Criteria for evaluation

The worse we understand products, the more chances we have to buy something inedible, spoiled, sour, stale. As a rule, a person is well versed in this, evaluating a product according to a number of criteria - color, smell, composition, date of production, shelf life, manufacturer, seller, and so on. You can find criteria suitable for yourself regarding information products - and you will be quite confident in their edibility and deliciousness. If you buy uninteresting films, disappointing books, boring magazines, stale news - think about how to find a more accurate and edible system of criteria that will allow you to easily evaluate what you need and do not need.

Here and now

The value of information is determined by the need or desire to absorb it immediately. Ideal information is what you are looking for at a given moment in time to use it in one way or another.

Information for the near future

We do not always have the opportunity to read (watch, listen) information immediately, and we postpone acquaintance with it for later. “For later” can be determined by any reasonable time frame. However, a simple rule works well here: if you cannot say exactly when this "later" will come, then you do not need the information. This works in all cases when "what if", "for every fireman", "maybe", "everything happens in life", and so on.

Destruction of information after contact

If the information has no expiration date and cannot be claimed, it is destroyed immediately. All videotapes with content that disappoint you are rented out, changed, sold or thrown away. All emails with the following content: “This is a test”, “I'm here”, “It was great”, “Agree”, “Ok”, and so on are deleted immediately. Uninteresting books are thrown away or handed over to waste paper. The TV turns off or switches to a more interesting channel.

This is hygiene. Today I received a test in "Political Science" - and the first thing I did was to throw all my notes into the trash can. Why? But because no political science is expected for the remaining training time. This time. The material that was dictated in the lectures is not interesting to me. These are two. In the near future, I did not plan a more thorough acquaintance with political science. These are three. It is quite enough to store any garbage in the place where it should be stored.

Today's time is the time for information. Google, social networks, mobile operators know almost everything about you - what interests you, with whom you communicate, where you are. Millions of video cameras capture your actions in almost all in public places, The traffic police records your movement on the roads ...

1. Be small so that you can always carry it with you (for example, by attaching it to a bunch of keys). No one knows exactly when the need to write something down will arise - you must always be ready for this.
2. Being sensitive - it is not always possible to bring the voice recorder closer to the interlocutor.
3. Have the ability to quickly turn on by touch. A critical situation will not wait.
4. Have built-in means of ensuring the authenticity of the recording (confirmation that the recording has not been changed, that it was recorded on a specific dictaphone), be tied to the time and date of recording.

Video "Who owns the information - he owns the world."

Francis Bacon, Nathan Rothschild, Winston Churchill ....

Two hundred years ago, Napoleon was losing the Battle of Waterloo to the British. According to legend, Nathan and Jacob Rothschild were closely watching the battle. In addition to financial worries, the Rothschilds could afford only one hobby - carrier pigeons. After the battle, the pigeons were immediately released with encrypted instructions tied to their paws. But the Rothschilds did not want to risk it and, barely convinced that Napoleon was losing the battle, Nathan, driving expensive horses, rushed to London himself. In the morning Nathan Rothschild appeared on the London Stock Exchange. He was the only one in London who knew about Napoleon's defeat. Grieving over Napoleon's successes, he immediately set about selling his shares on a massive scale. All other stockists immediately followed his example, as they decided that the British had lost the battle. English, Austrian and Prussian securities fell in price every minute and were bought up in bulk by Rothschild agents. The fact that Napoleon had lost the battle was learned on the stock exchange only a day later. Many securities holders committed suicide and Nathan earned £ 40 million. Real information, received earlier than others, allowed the Rothschilds to play a win-win game on the stock exchange.

It was to Nathan Rothschild that the rumor attributed the classic phrase "Who owns the information, he owns the world." Since then, the cost and importance of information ownership has increased exponentially.

Today's time is the time for information. Google, social networks, mobile operators know almost everything about you - what interests you, who you communicate with, where you go. Millions of video cameras record your actions in almost all public places, the traffic police records your movement on the roads ...

At first glance, there is nothing wrong with such a fixation. But in fact, the problem is that you are not in control of the information received. It is not up to you how to present and cut the recorded information. It is clear that the record of your violation, for example, will be presented, but the previous provocation, for example, will not. Your business partner with whom you have a disagreement will of course only present your promises to him, not his to you. The traffic police inspector will present a record of your violation, and not an attempt to provoke you to bribe. And, if necessary, he will find some nice "excuse": remember the recent case when a malicious virus destroyed a video recording of an accident with the participation of a Moscow priest.

Today, life without a personal documenting device is, in fact, being unarmed among armed people. A documented alignment of situations will always not be in your favor, since you will not have any documentary evidence. To maintain balance with the armed outside world it is necessary to acquire personal documenting devices.

Car enthusiasts have already realized the existing situation and the most far-sighted of them have already installed DVRs on their cars that record the road situation. Now they will have documentary proof in which case (accident, setup, etc.). The DVR is good for a car, but not very suitable for a person, since a person is very mobile - the video picture will constantly jump. For a person, so far the best means of personal documentation is a dictaphone. Not all voice recorders are suitable for this. For example, a voice recorder in a mobile phone or smartphone is not suitable - it is very difficult and long to turn it on in a critical situation (it takes a lot of taps to turn on the recording, and looking at the screen), it has a low sensitivity (in phones, microphones are used that are designed so that perceive the speech of a speaker near and suppress external, distant noises and speech (so-called noise canceling microphones), so they can only record speech near.

1. Be small so that you can always carry it with you (for example, by attaching it to a bunch of keys). No one knows exactly when the need to write something down will arise - you must always be ready for this.

2. Be sensitive - it is not always possible to bring the voice recorder closer to the interlocutor.

3. Have the ability to quickly turn on by touch. A critical situation will not wait.

4. Have built-in means of ensuring the authenticity of the recording (confirmation that the recording has not been changed, that it was recorded on a specific dictaphone), be bound to the time and date of the recording.

Picture

The possibility of cyclic recording, when the voice recorder performs the functions of a "black box", which records constantly, is extremely interesting for a means of personal documentation. It is not always possible to turn on the recording at all and it is not always possible to predict that "this situation should have been recorded." Opportunities to turn off the recording and realize later that the situation was worth documenting much more.

Personal documentation tools are essentially security tools. And saving on safety is more expensive for yourself. It is a pity that often the understanding of this truth comes late, when nothing can be done.

In this statement, the author raises the problem of the importance of information as a factor of production in the economy. The problem posed is especially relevant for modern world when scientific and technological progress is gaining momentum.

N.M. Rothschild is sure that today the success of production depends to a large extent on the possession of this or that information. Scientific discoveries, any methods and knowledge - all this, if used correctly, gives an enormous potential to an enterprise.

N.M. himself Rothschild proves the truth of this quote by his example, being one of the richest and most influential people in the history of mankind. I cannot but agree with the opinion of the author. Indeed, people often call the one who has unlimited power over them as omniscient and all-seeing.

Information refers to the resources that are involved in the production of goods and services, that is, to the factors of production. Social scientists distinguish four types of factors of production: land as a natural resource, the factor income of which is rent; capital as material and monetary resources, with income in the form of interest; labor as the aggregate forces of people, with their knowledge, skills and abilities to create economic benefits whose factor income is wages; and entrepreneurial ability - the ability to correctly combine all factors and organize production.

Recently, some economists have identified in a separate group the new kind resources - information, at the same time it can be attributed to intellectual capital. Information influences the type of economic growth of an enterprise: intensive or extensive. The latter happens only when you have the necessary information.

In addition to theoretical justifications, specific facts can be cited. A striking example of the importance of information as a factor of production in the economy can be a case from the media. Today Japan is among the most developed countries. It is a small island nation with disadvantageous natural conditions and with extremely limited resources, it was able to do the impossible - to become the next center of the world economy. Recently, the Japanese have built an entire artificial island of plastic waste, which has increased the area of ​​residence of citizens and reduced harmful emissions from plastic recycling. Also, Japan ensures its economic development through the sale of many inventions, scientific discoveries and innovations. We see that money came to this country only after the competent use of the available information, so we can conclude that information can really make the subject richer and more influential.

Another example is a fact from history. When an unknown native from the provinces by the name of Lomonosov was able, thanks to his knowledge, to enter the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, where only children from the noble classes were taken. The information that this man possessed made him later one of the most outstanding scientists of his time. M.V. Lomonosov wrote many scientific papers, for which he received respect and power as a scientist.

Thus, from all of the above, we can conclude that N.M. Rothschild is definitely right. Information is indeed the most important production factor in the economy.

Updated: 2018-03-04

Attention!
If you notice an error or typo, select the text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thus, you will provide invaluable benefits to the project and other readers.

Thank you for the attention.

Whoever owns the information owns the world. Many of us have heard this catch phrase... But probably not everyone knows where it came from. Meanwhile, her story is very interesting.

Nathan Rothschild - the founder of the English branch of the Rothschilds successfully traded British textiles and after some time founded his own bank. Nathan Rothschild's most successful business began in 1814, when the British government attracted his bank to finance a military campaign against Napoleon. Large sums of gold (over 11 million pounds a year) were transferred from England to Marshal Wellington and the Allies through this bank. Nathan and his brother Jakob turned over huge sums of money in troubled Europe, saving clients from the risks of transporting money and delaying payments.

Mayer Amschel Rothschild, founder of the dynasty, with his sons

In addition to financial concerns, the Rothschild brothers had one hobby - they passionately loved pigeons. In the Middle Ages, a well-trained carrier pigeon cost no less than an Arabian horse. In the 19th century, they helped the Rothschilds make the largest fortune of that time.

In 1815, all of Europe was frightened by Napoleon's revenge. After the triumph of the Hundred Days, the stock exchanges of England were in a fever - everyone anxiously awaited how the decisive battle between the armies of Napoleon and Wellington at Waterloo would end. At the beginning of the battle, it seemed to observers that Napoleon was winning, which was urgently reported to London. However, the Prussian corps of Blucher arrived in time to help Wellington's troops and decided the outcome of the battle in favor of the Allies. Napoleon fled.

All this time, Nathan Rothschild had at his disposal a staff of spies who followed on the heels of the troops and immediately sent reports to their master about all important events... By pigeon mail, of course. The last pigeons with coded instructions tied to their paws were released immediately after the battle.

On the morning of the next day, Nathan Rothschild appeared on the London Stock Exchange. He was the only one in London who knew with certainty about Napoleon's defeat. Grieving over Napoleon's successes, he immediately set about selling his shares on a massive scale. All other stockists immediately followed his example, as they decided that the British had lost the battle. Panic arose. British, Austrian and Prussian securities became cheaper by the minute. The London Stock Exchange was literally bursting with devalued shares. They were secretly and hastily bought up by Rothschild's front agents.

The fact that Napoleon had lost the battle was learned on the stock exchange only a day later. Many securities holders committed suicide, and Nathan made £ 40 million in one day and took over a large share of the British economy. The same operation on the Paris Stock Exchange was carried out by Nathan Rothschild's brother Jacob.

This is how the famous phrase "Who owns the information owns the world" was born. The Rothschilds were well versed in information flows. They prepared everything for the information to reach them in the first place. Naturally, the Rothschilds made many enemies and envious people. Ill-wishers were even able to intercept the brothers' business correspondence. Imagine their surprise when mysterious, indecipherable signs and meaningless phrases like "dried fish" (meaning, by the way, the money of Prince Friedrich Wilhelm) were found in the letters. The Rothschilds kept information as their most precious treasure.

The pompous funeral of Nathan Rothschild on August 8, 1836 in London showed the power and power that Rothschild acquired in England. The ambassadors of the great powers followed the coffin, the mayor, the members of the municipality, and the whole of London was on its feet.