Pizzagate was a strange case, in retrospect. The people allegedly involved posted incredibly bizarre pictures on their Instagram pages. If they were innocent, it seemed like a very unwise thing to do. Were they trolling? Who knows.
My motto: Always Question. In fact my FB image is a poster students at SFAI made for the conceptual artist Josef Beuys. It translates in English to Always Question.
Thanks for writing (or republishing) this very timely review of Kingwell. Very useful! Given the addictive properties of social media, the widespread tendencies of many to DYOR ("do your own research"), and the ongoing affective polarization we're experiencing, it's little surprise that certainty and tribalism can become addictive--and that real conspiracy theories can thrive even if some conspiracies are true.
I just saw that Tiimothy Caulfield, professor of health law at the University of Alberta, has published The Certainty Illusion, which deals with the besetting vices of certitude on matters of public health and a range of social issues, and I will have to use the term "misinformation" here to describe what he's attempting to do in the book, judging from the advance reviews. He's written and spoken much in the past on the confabulations of the wellness industry and given current politics, I imagine his book will be very timely.
Kudos to Kingwell, though, in adding to this growing genre of cautions against certainty, confirmation bias, and other forms of motivated reasoning.
"Nullius in Verba" is still the motto of the Royal Society. It is various translated as "don't take anyone's word for it", "see for yourself", etc. It's not clear that the Royal Society's motto still represents it very well, though.
Makes sense.
Pizzagate was a strange case, in retrospect. The people allegedly involved posted incredibly bizarre pictures on their Instagram pages. If they were innocent, it seemed like a very unwise thing to do. Were they trolling? Who knows.
My motto: Always Question. In fact my FB image is a poster students at SFAI made for the conceptual artist Josef Beuys. It translates in English to Always Question.
Michael,
Thanks for writing (or republishing) this very timely review of Kingwell. Very useful! Given the addictive properties of social media, the widespread tendencies of many to DYOR ("do your own research"), and the ongoing affective polarization we're experiencing, it's little surprise that certainty and tribalism can become addictive--and that real conspiracy theories can thrive even if some conspiracies are true.
I just saw that Tiimothy Caulfield, professor of health law at the University of Alberta, has published The Certainty Illusion, which deals with the besetting vices of certitude on matters of public health and a range of social issues, and I will have to use the term "misinformation" here to describe what he's attempting to do in the book, judging from the advance reviews. He's written and spoken much in the past on the confabulations of the wellness industry and given current politics, I imagine his book will be very timely.
Kudos to Kingwell, though, in adding to this growing genre of cautions against certainty, confirmation bias, and other forms of motivated reasoning.
"Nullius in Verba" is still the motto of the Royal Society. It is various translated as "don't take anyone's word for it", "see for yourself", etc. It's not clear that the Royal Society's motto still represents it very well, though.