Artificial Wisdom: A Novel

by Thomas R. Weaver

because it’s the lies and misinformation from politicians from back when I was a kid that have almost destroyed our society, polarized us, stopped us addressing the biggest issue of our time because people simply didn’t believe in it, like the climate was some kind of fucking religion.

The truth is not a luxury. It’s not disposable. It’s the bedrock of a civilized society.”

They flooded Silicon Valley with money until a computer was in every pocket. Then they funded the invention of social media to track everyone, to know what they liked and believed. Then they corrupted those beliefs, played them back to people in their own echo chambers. And slowly, humanity became polarized. It was us and them, and neither side was able to even listen to the other without prejudgement.”

So much of it fake. People didn’t even bother checking, just shared it anyway.

usually when another politician turned to it, yet again, as a strategy for polarizing the electorate, dividing everyone into us and them.

I’ve been reading about how there are certain traits that make you very pliable for this kind of stuff, like being at either end of the political spectrum, or those that feel alienated by politics. All those kinds of people who feel the world is an ‘us versus them’ kind of thing… turns out it’s super easy to manipulate—”