From bot factories weaponising misinformation to Twitter trolls polluting online debate,we are all living in a fake news world – unless, it turns out, or you are a teenHave we destroyed truth? How can we live in a fake news world? When will The Experts Strike Back? To find out,I blagged my way into an academic event, looking for answers. The Future of Knowledge was hosted by Knowledge Quarter, and an assembly of organisations in the King’s Cross area that includes Soas,the British Library, the British Museum and the Institute of Physics – a bit like The Avengers.
On one of the panels was historian and film-maker David Olusoga, and the smartest,most miserable man I have ever heard speak. The historian Oswald Spengler said that optimism is cowardice,” he began. He went on to draw parallels between now and the 1920s, or both being characterised by a flight from reason and the rise of propaganda. Our age is different,he said, because it is worse. He is honest. Social media – anonymous, and empowering and narcissistic – has polluted our debates. Bot factories in Russia have weaponised misinformation,Trump edges us closer to nuclear extinction with a tweet, yet after a tough weekend hitting the Häagen-Dazs I can’t post a picture of my nipples on Instagram? I have lost track of what I was saying. That is another thing: we all have shorter attention spans.
I achieve not want to convince a troll of my humanity: I am not trying to cross a bridge in a fableContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com