Virtual Unreality: Just Because the Internet Told You, How Do You Know It's True? by Charles Seife
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

There Is No Vaccine

People lie

Because there are no consequences, the lies people tell on the internet are bigger than ever before.

Because people are largely uneducated, and like gossip, the lies that people tell on the internet are more consequential.

Because the lies told on the internet spread like an highly infectious disease, it is appropriate to use this analogy to describe the way in which they infect human brains as a sort of plague.

All the traditional defences we have relied upon to reduce the rate of infection - authority, cross-referencing, factual consistency, social distancing, isolation - have broken down with the advance and global proliferation of digital technology.

Consequently we are all at continuous peril of infection from a virulent auto-immune disease that hides its effects and is welcomed by its hosts: “As we sink into the comfortable monotony of constant reinforcement, as we spend an increasing amount of time listening to sources of information that are tailored to strengthen our mental fictions rather than challenge them, we are slowly being turned into cranks ourselves. And those who don’t succumb are often at the mercy of those who do.”

In short: “Bad information is a disease that affects all of us... And there’s no vaccine.” Yep, that’s right ladies and gents. There is no cure, no preventative, no fix for the condition. I admire Seife for admitting it. But then why write the book? Exposing some of the lies which have been shown to be false, misleading, or just stupid, typically involved dogged detective work beyond both the capability and interest of your average internet user. His examples therefore are more salacious than instructive.

There is no vaccine now; there will be no vaccine. The underlying virus has always been there waiting, like COVID, for the right environmental conditions to emerge. Yet Seife has hope. For what? A general improvement in human nature? The rise of some sort of new journalistic authority? Some new philosophical breakthrough in epistemology? Education in computer literacy? As soon as these solutions are listed, it is obvious that the cause is lost. As he notes, the current state of affairs represents the real social triumph of democracy. Finally we have a technology which rids us of the plague of elites. Truth is what the majority say it is (two-thirds in the US Senate, a stand for plutocracy!). Our right to believe anything we desire has been vindicated by our technological fellowship with others who believe the same things. Could it be that Seife’s hope is just another internet lie to enhance his position with his aspiring journalist students, giving them some hope that their futures are secure? Someone tell me why these students are not doomed to irrelevance.

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