I still remember reading Vernor Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep with the idea of the “net of a million lies,” which we may well have already reached without the bonus of having an interstellar civilization. Instead, we have an absurd amount of people around the globe thinking they’re on a flat Earth.
I stumbled across this video that has a succinct explanation for a lot of conspiracy theories..
One of the concepts mentioned in the video above is one that I’m sure I’ve heard explained before, but I’m not sure I’ve heard the name: that being Ramsey Theory. Time and again, I hear science educators and others note that we humans, while clever enough to figure out mathematics, certainly enough to use statistics, individually get confused by the implications of said mathematics and statistics.
This led to another Ted Ed video that helps explain why so many people are so convinced by their faux insights: they simply don’t understand how much they don’t know.
May I always be aware of just how unaware I am of a great many things. Happy Monday!