Tor Norretranders
Tor Nørretranders is a Danish author of popular science. His books and lectures have primarily been focused on light popular science and its role in society, often with Nørretranders' own advice about how society should integrate new findings in popular science. He introduced the notion of exformation (explicitly discarded information) in his book The User Illusion.
Academic background:
cand.techn.soc. (M.Sc.) from Roskilde University 1982 (philosophy and sociology of science applied to socio-economic planning). Academically employed at Technical University of Denmark (1982-83), Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (1990-91), Risø National Laboratory (1993). Director of the Mindship Foundation (1995-96). Adjunct Professor of the Philosophy of Science at Copenhagen Business School from 2003.
Journalistic background:
Science writer at leading Copenhagen daily and weekly newspapers (Information, Weekendavisen, Børsens Nyhedsmagasin, Politiken) and the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (Danmarks Radio), hosting the tv-show “Hvælv”. Received the non-fiction prize of the Danish Writers Union, 1985, and the publicist prize of of the Danish Publicist Club, 1988.
“Consciousness is not about information but about its opposite: order. Consciousness is not a complex phenomenon; it is what consciousness is _about_ that is complex. It is presumably this fact that is the reason many scientists over the decades have tended to perceive information as something involving order and organization. Because consciousness is about an experience of order and organization. Because consciousness is a state that does not process much information - consciously. Consciousness consists of information no more than a person who consumes large amounts of food can be said to consist of food. Consciousness is nourished by information the same way the body is nourished by food. But human beings do not consist of hot dogs; they consist of hot dogs that have been eaten. Consciousness does not consist of hots dogs but consists of hot dogs that have been apprehended. That is far less complex.”