Neil Postman, on what results when traditional controls on information break down:

One way of defining a Technopoly is to say that its information immune system is inoperable…. This is why it is possible to say almost anything without contradiction provided you begin your utterance with the words “A study has shown…” or “Scientists now tell us that…” More important, it is why in a Technopoly there can be no transcendent sense of purpose or meaning, no cultural coherence. Information is dangerous when it has no place to go, when there is no theory to which it applies, no pattern in which it fits, when there is no higher purpose that is serves. Alfred North Whitehead called such information “inert,” but that metaphor is too passive. Information without regulation can be lethal.