Into The Dark? Digital Future vs. Enlightenment
summary
Argues that algorithmic curation is shrinking the public epistemic space, comparing today's platforms to the Spanish Inquisition controlled opinion that enforced a single sanctioned truth; claims science often produces highly justified but probabilistic conclusions not absolute facts, so truth selection remains unresolved; notes that search began as PageRank ranked by links and now returns single algorithmic answers and knowledge panels; warns that Facebook filter bubbles and default search choices reduce encounters with dissenting views and weaken intellectual autonomy.
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chapters (11)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:5416th-century vs modern digital issues
- 3:19Inquisition and institutional control
- 4:24Enlightenment promise in internet age
- 6:29Truth in digital age and 'alternative truths'
- 7:54Science vs truth and opinion
- 9:21Google’s role in thought and autonomy
- 12:14Need for diverse search strategies
- 12:58Facebook’s truth bubbles
- 14:04New Dark Age?
- 15:07Conclusion
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