I find it increasingly hard to keep up with major events happening every day in this post-truth age. Read several newspapers, find some inconsistency, google some of the terminologies, and think over the conflicting viewpoints in the comments. An hour passes easily. Democrats claimed there was Russian interference in the 2016 election, which Republicans vehemently denied. Republicans claimed there was fraud in the 2020 election, which Democrats vehemently denied. What are some criticisms on global warming and genetic modification? What about nuclear powers and unconditional basic income? Bookmarked web pages grow like real books piled up taller and taller on the table until they fall and scatter on the ground.
Nevertheless, it can be strange to say that reality is becoming more elusive than before. Theoretical physics papers are accessible on Arxiv, rare music performances are on Youtube, an average smartphone has more computational power than Apollo 1, and historical documents from ancient Greek parchment to Chinese bronze inscriptions are at your fingertips. All the time, many people with freedom of speech are studying them and leaving their views on blogs, twitter posts, newspapers, academic journals, and books. Among such innumerable data, some of them should be correct. If information is free to us and we are free to get information, why can’t we just filter the real ones from the fake ones?
Often I go to the supermarket, wondering what to make for dinner. Into my field of view enter cokes, potato chips, fried chicken, and before I collect my thoughts, my basket is full. Why haven’t I picked healthier foods? Aren’t fish and teas in the supermarket too? Once I read the fact that most consumers only see the layer about even to their eyes on the rack, and that frightened me. I think I have given consideration to all products on the racks, but in fact I am aware of just one layer. Industries must have competed to locate their product on that very layer.
The same thing is happening on the internet. We think we have skimmed all important data, but actually we only know, well, those the algorithms feed us. resentment gets more views than reasoning. A fraud is recommended more than a fact. Try to use the search box, conspiracy theories pop up before well established science. If you have the stamina to actively investigate all of that, congratulations, but most people don’t, including me. “We never hide right information; we just keep flooding in wrong information. Although in that case, right information gets flooded, and they are sort of hidden. Sorry!” This is what I suggest Mark Zuckerberg should say in the next hearing.
Depriving people of their freedom, in my view, is only the second most wicked crime. The most wicked one is tricking them into believing that they are free, when they aren’t quite. We are like hikers who are dying of coldness, but feeling hot, take off their clothes. Humanity is doomed, and the best thing we can do is get into the simulator chair, twitching in ecstasy until our blood spills out of our mouths, right?
❧ October 31, 2021