Truth and Accuracy are a Pelican in a Wedding Dress
The late Robert Anton Wilson was a noted psychologist, Playboy editor, and source of the modern use of the term conspiracy theory. I’m going to borrow one of his life experiences to illustrate why Elon Musk’s tweet that Twitter’s new missions is to become “by far the most accurate source of information about the world” is a mission doomed to fail.
Not long after Wilson moved from LA to Santa Cruz, his car was broken into and his possessions stolen. He contacted the local police only to be told it wasn’t their responsibility as he lived outside their jurisdiction in Capitola. He contacted the postal office, confused as it said Santa Cruz on his address, they reassured him he did indeed live there. Looking for closure, Wilson reached out to a reporter at the local newspaper, who informed him he lived in neither Santa Cruz, nor Capitola, but Live Oak.
It transpired the different authorities had drawn different lines on the same map and until now they’d never crossed over with one another. Each had their own system, which worked fine and was in their informed opinion, objectively true. They had no reason to change it either, so Wilson ended up living in three places at the same time.
He used this as an example to explain quantum physics. It makes no sense to most people looking in, as it’s hard to understand how a particle can be in three different places at the same time without being anywhere at all, until you remember that we invented all the boundaries ourselves. At which point it’s no more mysterious and complex than understanding his apartment existed in three places at the same time.
Wilson made one of the greatest psychological breakthroughs of the twentieth century based on his experiences of trying to understand why he suddenly started hearing voices. This unfortunately happened at a time before much was known about schizophrenia. Initially Wilson thought the voices were aliens, but a variety of doctors and psychics tried to explain them as everything from a long dead Chinese philosopher to a medieval Irish bard.
He concluded each was no less a valid interpretation of data than the other, and as tests and medical texts had failed to provide an answer, the answer came down to what he decided it was.
The story above about his car, is a perfect example of that theory in the real world.
Wilson named this the self-referential reality tunnel, explained simply as “truth is in the eye of the beholder.”
In short, based on our beliefs, lived experiences and communities we exist in, we all experience reality uniquely. Different interpretations of the same data can be true or untrue, depending on who you’re asking. But because one person considers something true, doesn’t detract from another person’s truth. One man’s Chinese philosopher ghost is another’s medieval Irish bard.
Another famous psychologist named Wilson (who was much more British) theorised we’re biased to seek out, interoperate and recall data that confirms our beliefs. These confirmation biases are the layer of icing the internet pipes on top of the self-referential reality tunnels we exist in.
I feel for Elon Musk.
When he made his declaration this morning about Twitter’s new mission to be the most accurate source of the truth in the world, Jack Dorsey the co-founder of Twitter challenged him to answer whom would decide what was true, and Elon replied saying it would be judged so by the people of Twitter.
Elon has suggested a simple solution to what he assumes is a simple problem, but under his system if enough voices said loudly enough the correct answer to the criminalisation of abortion was to marry a pelican, than that would be the correct answer.
That may be someone’s truth, but it’s probably best that it’s not forced on everyone else.
