Is there any hope for truth? I went to a conference to find out

Have 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, 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, 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, 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 right. Social media – anonymous, 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 hard 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.

Is there any hope? Well, we survived the 1920s, admitted Olusoga. Journalist Sally Adee drew a more leftfield analogy with “kayfabe”, a professional-wrestling term. It refers to the double-consciousness of wrestling fans: they enjoy the rivalries, violence and drama of the sport, while being aware that these are fake. Author Shelina Janmohamed reminded us that the internet’s plurality widens the range of human stories and increases connection. She has engaged with egg-avatar Twitter trolls – convincing them of her humanity sometimes bring out theirs.

Source: theguardian