Thread by @PhilippMarkolin

WARNING:
There are new pathogens in our midst.

My latest article about media #manipulators, velocity #hacking, and the latest Covid origin #controversy.

Maybe some #mainstream journalists & influencers take a good look in the mirror.

Read:
protagonistfuture.substack.com/p/the-rise-of-…

How much should we think about the role of information in society?

In this article, I use the recent media coverage surrounding #lableak versus #zoonosis to point toward a new threat we have not yet wrapped our heads around:

Information pathogens with high #velocity.

#Velocity is a metric for the transmission efficacy of information given a particular content payload, its viral packaging, and its host environment.

Basically the R0 of information, a measure of #contagiousness.

Info pathogens with high velocity outcompetes good information.

In the attention economy, velocity #hacking is the true business model of information merchants (e.g marketers, influencers, even independent journalists, news outlets, or organizations)

There are legitimate and #toxic ways to do it.
Guess which we see most?

I list 6 #tactics:

Next, I talk a bit about information #cascades.

This is a concept I find useful to talk about both information #diffusion and how our collective decisions to engage with content is shaped by our social environment.

Information cascades also #restructure our social connections.

This makes information cascades very potent when combined with information pathogens.

While velocity hackers reap in #profits from riding on information cascades, our social structure changes, and information pathogens can #evolve to overwhelm our defenses, and infect our minds.

Barack Obama famously said:

“The more freely information flows, the stronger the society becomes, because then citizens of countries around the world can hold their own governments accountable. They can begin to think for themselves.”

So why is democracy in decline?

With the rise of the broadband #internet and #social media, many hoped that with the power of a #democratic information sphere came the power of a democratic society.

What went wrong?

I think we have been sold a false promise by #tech companies about the information age.

#Democracy presupposes an equality of influence.

Yet today, even before our voices are drowned out by the #noise on social media, or #overwritten by velocity hacking information combatants, we lose our #agency and decision #autonomy to systems we don’t fully understand.

Where do we go from here?

Well, I certainly think we need a software upgrade for the information age.

We have to tackle our current #vulnerabilities and safeguard a democratic information sphere from undue #influence.

Here is a friend's link to medium:
protagonist-science.medium.com/the-rise-of-in…

Also, somebody has been sleeping on my content @ArthurCDent @C_Kavanagh 😉