Information Constellations and Internet Conspiracy Theories: Truth-Seeking in the Digital Age

In retrospect, it was inevitable. The internet—which was supposed to make us more connected—has loosened the informational ties that bound us together in the 20th century.

With unmediated access to source material and near-zero publication costs, digital media has had the effect of both illuminating the truth and blinding us to it.

For millennia, human beings gazed upon a reliable night sky and constructed a library of constellations. Upon (or from) the signs of the zodiac came stories that everyone could agree upon; these narratives contained a sufficient degree of objective truth, some practical knowledge, and social glue that would bind communities with a common mythos.

Similarly, in the 20th century, professional academics and other epistemic intermediaries gazed upon primary sources and constructed constellations of history (connected to the present via the news).

The proliferation of internet access has “lit up the informational night sky,” allowing every individual to gaze upon a vast sea of digital data and construct his own constellations. There are benefits: Discoveries on the frontier of human knowledge, illumination of previously dark spots on the map of reality, and an unprecedented ability for individuals to speak truth to power. We are in an era where, in the long run, power will find it difficult to conceal itself. This is good.

But, there are also significant downsides: With the number of “stars in the sky” increasing at an accelerating pace, we can more easily string together data to support an imaginal construct. This widespread activity is rather unsurprising in a postmodern world, where a healthy skepticism of power taken to the extreme leaves atomized postmodern man with the raw material and technology to construct a self-centered metanarrative, a high-fidelity and (perhaps most insidiously) internally consistent Zodiacal “mythos of me.”

Something analogous happened in the 16th century with the printing press and the Protestant Reformation. And then, just as now, unmediated access to source material often yielded value. But it also caused European society to fracture violently and allowed individuals, blinded by new information (and pride), to introduce and propagate errors.

Conspiratorial thinking is nothing new. It’s a perennial human activity (in the west, antisemitic conspiracy theorizing in particular: see?Luther?500 years ago or?Marcion?and various?other Gnostics?2000 years ago). We can’t help ourselves but connect the dots. Now, there are so many dots that we can—emboldened by a culture that does not take objective reality very seriously—construct whatever pictures we want.

The typical postmodern internet conspiracy theorist makes a critical error regarding his primary motivation: He claims to pursue the truth. Often, the subtler aim—one to which we are all susceptible—is to feed his ego with a self-impressed narrative that demonstrates how smart and enlightened he is, especially compared to the stupid masses of sheep. This error is compounded further by three factors:

1. The difficulty of discerning the imaginal from the real in cyberspace,
2. Insufficient contact with reality, and
3. The refusal of traditional epistemic elites to acknowledge nuggets of truth contained within the conspiracy theory.

From my limited understanding of psychological warfare, the standard approach to combating conspiratorial projects is to flood the information sphere with noise or attempt to shape narratives from within through infiltration. While this may be effective in the short term (and I understand why there would be practical reasons to take this approach in “war time“), it is insufficient in the long run. Instead, those in power who genuinely care about the good should commit to taking objective reality seriously again by:

1. Dedicating institutional resources to the dissemination of the truth, no matter how painful or embarrassing acts of public revelation might be to elites and statesmen who have committed errors, and
2. Arming the next generation, through technology-enabled public education, with tools for critical thinking (“how to think,” not doctrinal declarations of “what to think”).

If we want to preserve our institutions—and we absolutely should—then we must abandon the postmodern project and start taking reality seriously. Through that (painful) process, every single one of us will be able to raise our eyes toward the same night sky, one further illuminated by bright new points visible through the great gifts afforded to us by the miracles of networked personal computing technology, and a behold a common view of reality as it actually is—and with unprecedented clarity.

The truth has always, does, and will always set us free. Self-serving heresies do not.

Let’s get back to reality.

Seeking truth in the digital age

At Virgils Inc , we are committed to helping families thrive in the digital age.

If you’re concerned about the dangers of digital disinformation and want to arm your kids with the skills and mindsets they need to discern fact from fiction and make good choices online, consider signing them up for an upcoming Virgils Fellowship cohort.

The next batch starts September 19th.