Macroscope

Description

Tom Attlee:

"There's an image I like for thinking about making context visible and understandable. It is the "macroscope" [a term...] coined by Joel de Rosnay, author of The Symbiotic Man [who notes that microscopes are for seeing what's too tiny for ordinary seeing, telescopes are for seeing what's too far away for ordinary seeing, and macroscopes are for seeing what's too complex for ordinary seeing]. One way to provide context is to create macroscopic views into stories, a contextualized understanding of the relevant interconnections... [for example] Something that enables us to see the complexity of the health care debate or how the financial meltdown happened." Peggy said that the AP research about hunger for context in the news was focused on young people, but it probably applies to all of us." (http://tom-atlee.posterous.com/macroscopic-journalism)