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Truthiness and Agnotology

This is a PAST event. See "Meeting Notes" section for audio, video, documents and other information.

Original event date/time: Friday September 26th, 2008, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Does the massive increase in communications technology -- the internet, cell phones, satellite and cable television, internet video like youtube, and so on -- make us more informed? Or does it do the opposite -- spead doubt, confusion, lies, mythology, crackpot conspiracy theories, and the like? Bandwidth will keep increasing and increasing, so what should we expect for the future?

Abstract:

Truthiness is a term coined by Stephen Colbert, on the first episode of his TV show on Comedy Central, the Colbert Report. It refers to our tendency to believe or not believe something, not based on facts, evidence or logic, but by whether it "feels" true.

Agnotology is the study of culturally-induced doubt, particularly the publication of inaccurate or misleading scientific data. (I got this term from Loren.) The term was coined by Robert N. Proctor, a Stanford University professor specializing in the history of science and technology. The term comes from the greek root "agnosis", which means "not knowing" (the same root as the word "agnostic"). The term also refers to the increasingly common problem where more knowledge leads to less certainty.

This is a past event.

Meeting Notes: