“Information ecology” is a term I heard recently to explain why “all information is disinformation” as you say. Game theory predicts its inexorable pollution in a presumed rivalry— players can profit from withholding truth or flatly misinforming, so the niche guarantees that behavior. And even true information can mislead if other contextual facts are not profitable enough to surface.[1]
So I think you're right, our current environment precludes our ability to trust, which makes it impossible to make sense of our complex world. Kerby Ferguson has an interesting thesis on how conspiracy theories arose from this— from our irresistible urge to attribute the behaviors of our complex systems to human actors[2]. Though a preponderance of information without a compass of trust can lead us in any direction.
In the Q&A portion of your recent talk in DC, you said you “don't despair, but only for theological reasons.” I wanted to point you to something I'm currently (warily) hopeful for: a growing interest in researching what a “post-game theoretic” society could look like: to create a cultural shift toward more coherence, to grow a healthy information ecology, to help us solve our complex problems. Its hypothetical shape, not to be overprescribed, is called Game~B, a new game to be planted into our current broken one, to win on its own terms, over generations.[3][4] Just a heads-up on that, if pulling on that thread yields any fruits for your own research.
Michael, so good to hear your voice of lyrical logic in the cacophony of technological buzzing under cold fluorescent lights. It's a time of feeling human as hurting and alien, fragmented "in this world of stone." Teaching a class of 2nd graders today, I wanted to hit the computer enforced now between them and I, barrier to true emotionally intelligent teaching that I know they so desperately need to learn their own true hearts and mind. Something the machine can NEVER teach. I feel the touch of sanity within the warm humanity of your questioning voice in the "mad-ness" that is engendered in a formerly more grounded world. Thanks.
“Information ecology” is a term I heard recently to explain why “all information is disinformation” as you say. Game theory predicts its inexorable pollution in a presumed rivalry— players can profit from withholding truth or flatly misinforming, so the niche guarantees that behavior. And even true information can mislead if other contextual facts are not profitable enough to surface.[1]
So I think you're right, our current environment precludes our ability to trust, which makes it impossible to make sense of our complex world. Kerby Ferguson has an interesting thesis on how conspiracy theories arose from this— from our irresistible urge to attribute the behaviors of our complex systems to human actors[2]. Though a preponderance of information without a compass of trust can lead us in any direction.
In the Q&A portion of your recent talk in DC, you said you “don't despair, but only for theological reasons.” I wanted to point you to something I'm currently (warily) hopeful for: a growing interest in researching what a “post-game theoretic” society could look like: to create a cultural shift toward more coherence, to grow a healthy information ecology, to help us solve our complex problems. Its hypothetical shape, not to be overprescribed, is called Game~B, a new game to be planted into our current broken one, to win on its own terms, over generations.[3][4] Just a heads-up on that, if pulling on that thread yields any fruits for your own research.
[1] https://youtu.be/7LqaotiGWjQ
[2] http://www.thisisnotaconspiracytheory.com
[3] https://youtu.be/LzAgSp_O03I?t=3782
[4] https://www.gameb.wiki/wiki/Game_B
Michael, so good to hear your voice of lyrical logic in the cacophony of technological buzzing under cold fluorescent lights. It's a time of feeling human as hurting and alien, fragmented "in this world of stone." Teaching a class of 2nd graders today, I wanted to hit the computer enforced now between them and I, barrier to true emotionally intelligent teaching that I know they so desperately need to learn their own true hearts and mind. Something the machine can NEVER teach. I feel the touch of sanity within the warm humanity of your questioning voice in the "mad-ness" that is engendered in a formerly more grounded world. Thanks.