Are you able to consider it? | Seth’s Weblog

The requirements have modified quite a bit in the previous few millennia:

The massive man stated it.

The e-book stated it.

The newspaper stated it.

I noticed a photograph.

I noticed it on TV.

I learn it on the web.

That’s what the AI stated.

There has all the time been room for doubt. However the final century has been about doubt at scale, attributable to mismatched incentives and the influence of media and tech.

84% of the statistics we learn are manipulated for influence. And each story, each narrative, each picture is curated and edited. The map is just not the territory, and the map maker has a aim. It is perhaps the identical as yours–but it surely may not be.

One hazard is {that a} story not value believing lets us off the hook. The opposite is that it manipulates us into taking motion we’ll remorse.

It’s not possible to perform in society with out consuming tales. You’re by no means going to the moon, and the one method it’s doable to understand it’s not fabricated from inexperienced cheese is to discover a story you’ll be able to examine and belief, one which, when you drill down far sufficient, relies on issues you’ll be able to interact with in actual life.

Individuals in society are sometimes pushed by the need to consider what everybody else of their circle believes–individuals like us do issues like this. However the change agent has the need to be early in embracing concepts that others don’t consider (but).

The distinction between poison and drugs typically comes all the way down to the dosage. Perception at scale, fueled by omnipresent media designed to seduce, is unlikely to assist us get to the place we search to go.

A coherent tradition is commonly constructed on a shared perception system. When your complete group believes one thing that collides with actuality, although, actuality wins.

In the long term, the Earth doesn’t care what you consider. Eppur si muove.

July 1, 2026