What Is 'Truth' In the Digital Age?

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2010/11/05/Anand_Giridharadas_Developing_a_Digital_Philosophy

New York Times columnist Anand Giridharadas ponders how the concept of truth is changing in the era of Wikipedia, Facebook and other social mediums. In the digital age, says Giridharadas, "truth is what large numbers of people collectively say it is."

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On November 5, L2 and NYU Stern hosted its second-annual Innovation Forum at The Morgan Library in New York City. The full-day event addressed innovation in digital marketing and implications for prestige brands.

L2 Forums are the largest gatherings of prestige professionals in North America. Forums draw C-level executives and top marketing and digital talent from prestige brands; leading agencies, media, and technology firms; and innovators and academics. In addition, 25 percent of seats are reserved for students from the nation's top business and arts graduate programs. - L2

Anand Giridharadas is a writer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His first book, a work of narrative nonfiction about his return to the India that his parents left, is forthcoming from Times Books in early 2011. It is titled India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation's Remaking.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

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• online
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• social
• networks
• networking
• community
• information
• facts
• truth
• opinion
• foratv
• fora.tv
• fora
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• giridharadas
• L2
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[TemporalOnline]

What? The truth is what the most people "believe in"? That is the most "untruth" thing I can think of...

[26C8]

Pseudo-intellectual...



[nicku21negi]

He looks like Jake Gyllenhall.

[Plissken07]

"The truth is what a large number of people collectively say it is..."

I think he mean to say, "the truth is what the wikipedia admins say it is..."

[Adam67890]

@faraz1729 =]

[UnrealGeeMan]

@TemporalOnline word. Interesting stuff to though.

[TemporalOnline]

@doutonight I am not talking about people when using the best of the knowledge (IE:repeatable experiments with reliable results that shape a shadow of the "true truth"), but people that believe in whatever they feel like, even with all the evidence pointing against - that's what is happening today.

That is what I'm attacking. If you are trying to compare and put both in the same level, I strongly disagree with you. But if you are just pointing out that our best is still a shadow, then I agree.

[doutonight]

@TemporalOnline The objective truth (the one independant of our senses) is pretty much inacessible to us. Not to mention all the meanings we create. A painting is objectively just some energy and matter. But some would claim it is truly beautiful. So, yes, even if we dont like it, the truth is what we as a society agree on. Then there is also the sphere of debate (stuff we argue about as a society, think abortion, death penalty), and also the deviation (stuff we all agree is abnormal)

[theblue92]

Truth by popularity is a regression to the time of received truth and religion, rumor and superstition; by itself it is not a new phenomenon. It's only that the delivery system is faster and trending toward more homogenization.

[romeoechomike369]

Truth is definable by empirical evidence. It is backed up by experiment and repeatability. It is based upon our senses to a limited degree, but readily observable based upon human understanding and experience. We know what an orange looks like, and if someone tells you it's an apple, you know they are full of sh*t. So too with the scientific method. We know through carbon 14 dating that the fossils of dinosaurs existed millions of years ago.

[pt2091]

I find this to not be the general case. People don't appeal to the majority, but to the demographic they identify with. It's like how when you ask a person what personality does his or her dog have, and they answer with a run down version of him or her. People try to imagine themselves in a single-dimension, and then associate their beliefs with that image. This is why speculation is such a powerful tactic if you control it in the stock market.