“I’m interested in the ways that our social structures and technologies shape how we think and what we value.” C. Thi Nguyen
This podcast is the first of a series on “The Anthropology of Truth.” Today in the U.S., truth, facts, and science are under unprecedented assault. What is happening? Is this just old news for us, perhaps forever stuck in Plato’s Cave, mesmerized by the shadows? Or is there something about our high-tech and social media landscapes that act as accelerants and multipliers of our flaws? Throughout this series, we’ll explore different aspects of the Truth to see if we can figure something out. We can’t think of a better way to start laying these issues on the table than with the philosopher Thi Nguyen.
With a solid background in classic Western Philosophy, Thi unleashes Descartes’ “Evil Demon” onto our current tech and social media landscape, then considers the resulting mayhem. The Demon disrupts our lines of trust, and at every turn offers us a clearer, easier but flattened interpretation of reality. Thi brings the current assault on truth, facts, and science into focus by combining the dynamics of echo chambers, “moral outrage porn,” game theory, and the hazards of quantifying complex environments.
“I'm associate professor of philosophy at University of Utah. I’m interested in the ways in which our rationality and agency are socially embedded – about how our ways of thinking and deciding are conditioned by features of social organization, community, technology, and art practices. I’m also interested in the structures and nature of the interdependences we have with one another – and with our artifacts, practices, and institutions.” C. Thi Nguyen
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Show Notes
Thi’s Website with links to his books, videos and papers
His profile on PhilPeople
Select articles and video by Thi:
“Escape the Echo Chamber” in the digital magazine Aeon
“Why we Call Things ‘Porn’” by Bekka Williams and Thi Nguyen
How Twitter Gamifies Communication
The Gamification of Public Discourse
Select definitions:
Epistemology - The philosophical study of the nature, origin, and limits of human knowledge.
Charles Fourier’s Phalansteries
Heuristic - A heuristic is a mental shortcut that allows people to solve problems and make judgments quickly and efficiently.
Cognitive Dissonance - occurs when a person holds contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values, and is typically experienced as psychological stress when they participate in an action that goes against one or more of them.
Books and articles by others:
Elijah Milgram on chains of trust: The Great Endarkenment Philosophy for an Age of Hyperspecialization
Nate Byer
Jameson and Capella: Echo Chamber
Andre Begby: “Evidential Preemption”
Harry G. Frankfort: On Bullshit
Theodore M. Porter on Quantification: Trust in Numbers
Yochai Beckler, Robert Faris, and Hal Roberts: Network Propaganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics
CREDITS
Theme song by The Observatory
Transition music by Andrew Endres