On The Danger of Participatory Realism
In his latest blog, Prof Graham Harris revisits Philip Ball's concept of 'participatory realism' recently discussed in the New Scientist. The danger doesn't stem from its content - after all, a few centuries ago, Bacon said it all about the biased and context-dependent nature of observation in his Novum Organum. No, the danger comes from our current context where everyone, from powerful presidents to social media trolls, feel compelled to share their worldviews against all evidence. There is a dark side to relativism that needs to be put to rest.