EP 39 DO WE KNOW MORE AND UNDERSTAND LESS IN THE AGE OF BIG DATA?

Michael Patrick Lynch suggests that in the sub-title of his book, ‘The Internet of Us’.  Now the director of the Humanities at the University of Connecticut and the man who leads the university’s Humility and Conviction in Public Life Project sets about to determine if our society is now capable of finding common reality.  He delves into what used to seem so simple and yet today seems so complicated–how do we know information is true.  Just because we can Google information does not mean the information is accurate.  And even more to the point, he explains how we are not just polarized in our opinions or values, but in the facts we learn as we rest comfortably in our ‘information bubbles’.  Where does this isolation lead us?  Take a listen and it will begin to makes more sense and require a greater willingness on our part to want to know more than we’re letting in–or letting on.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download