First Thoughts
I see the purpose of my blog as to share my thoughts how things work in these crazy times during the Information Revolution. I intent to express my feelings on science, technology, politics and anything that affects our lives. I also enjoy to dig deep into history since humans have been around for at least 200,000 years, which is a long time. During those years huge number of problems were solved, or perhaps some were not solved and that's why we may be dealing with some of them even today.
One of the keys to healthy survival in our time is to be informed. We need to be informed about general subjects to go about our lives, to be respected by our friends, need to know what to buy and where to live, as a few examples, and also be informed on more specific subjects one needs to succeed in society, i.e. to be good on the job to make a good living.
However, today there is abundance of information that is out there including the good, the bad and anything in between. How to filter out "the bad" or anything that is not "good" is a question that many scientists and philosophers have been trying to answer for centuries.
The latest research is confirming the hypothesis, that humans tend at first to believe all that is presented to them and after either a very brief moment or longer period will either accept or reject it (Southwell, Thorson & Sheble, 2017).
It has been generally observed that previously accepted information that was later debunked tends to stick and perhaps despite strong evidence the new reality may never be fully accepted. There are many examples in history, but one particular example comes to my mind. It is the case of renaissance scientist Giordano Bruno: He was killed, or better put it, murdered by establishment and his thoughts were accepted not only long time after his death, but after the deaths of his murderers.
Unfortunately, information available at everyone's fingertips through breathtaking technological advances don't solve age old problems with lies and deceit. Fake news have been around since the first humans and their debunking may not be easy. In many cases, it may not even be possible.
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Southwell, B. G., Thorson, E. A., & Sheble, L. (November-December 2017). The Persistence and Peril of Misinformation. American Scientist, 105(6), 372. doi:10.1511/2017.105.6.372. Accessed on 12/01/2017 at https://www.americanscientist.org/article/the-persistence-and-peril-of-misinformation
Kolbert, E. (February 19, 2017). Why Facts Don's Change Our Minds. Accessed on 04/14/2019 at https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/27/why-facts-dont-change-our-minds?utm_source=pocket-newtab