Yuval Harari: Why the truth sinks in the ocean of information
2024-10-15 13:11:20
TiranaPost
Here's how Israeli historian and philosopher Yuval Harari sees the battle between truth and fiction in an interview for Kara Swisher's podcast:
"Most of the information is not the truth. Truth is a very small subset of all the information in the world. The truth is, first of all, costly.
If you're going to write a true story about something, you have to research, you have to gather evidence, you have to fact-check, you have to analyze. This is very costly in terms of time, money and effort. Fiction is very free.
Just write the first things that come to mind. Also, the truth is often very complicated because reality is complicated. While fiction can be made as simple as you want.
And people prefer stories usually simple. And lastly, the truth can be painful, whether it is the truth about me personally, about my relationships, about what I have done to other people, about myself, or entire nations or cultures. While you can make the fiction as attractive, or charming as you want.
So in this contest between truth and fiction and fantasy, truth is at a huge disadvantage.
You can simply flood the world with information.
Most of the information will not be true. And in this ocean of information, if it does not give the truth a helping hand, an advantage, the truth tends to sink. And we've seen it repeat itself throughout history, every time people invent a new information technology."
Originally published on bota.al
