Categories - Intertwingled: Information Changes Everything - page 34

What values are implicit in this scheme? What is the intent and impact? Who does it help? Who
gets hurt? What are its alternatives? And why is this the one we use? Why does it endure? We
must subject all taxonomies to such questions because their imprint belies their impact. Con-
sider, for instance, the Facebook Like. It's only a word, but it implies an ontology and shapes un-
derstanding and behavior profoundly.
Figure 2-9. Facebook hides more than it reveals.
Unlike Share or Retweet, Like nudges us into “friendly world syndrome.” We have a hard time
“liking” bad news, so most of the sad stories simply fade away, leaving us in a safe, happy place
that's good for business. When we think about taxonomies, we tend to focus on whole systems
like Dewey Decimal, but like Like, a single word can embody a worldview.
Words are interface and infrastructure. They are the handles that help us complete tasks and
find content, but they are also symbols that represent concepts and categories. Scholars in semi-
otics and semantics have delved deep into the complex relationships between sign (signifier)
and meaning ( signified ), and the extent to which that meaning is defined by intent or interpreta-
tion. One insight, extracted from the cold, dark depths of that rabbit hole, is that all words have
baggage.
Figure 2-10. Words are handles.