A folklore view of information

Comparisons are often drawn between the way we think and how computers work. The information‐processing model of cognition, and developments in artificial intelligence encourage such comparisons. Resistance to this view emphasises the unique flexibility of the human mind and suggests that machines do not think and cannot be creative. Theodore Roszak's The cult of information forms the catalyst for a discussion of the ways in which information has acquired folkloristic status as the major way in which people look at the world and their own process of thought.