quantification

The Anthropology of Truth Part 1 - The Seductions of Clarity: Philosophy for a Flattened World with Thi Nguyen

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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.