[Fis] FW: Cultural Relativsm. Disinformatiion and the Universe of Discourse

Wed Jan 22 19:10:37 CET 2020

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

The notes of Terry and Pedro, read together, point to a locus of
disinformation where 1) the disinformer refuses to enter into the universe
of discourse of his/her interlocutor with 2) the intent to mislead and
persuade third-parties. This is happening every day in Washington. Closer to
home, a for me key related phase in Pedro’s note is “insistence to apply
one’s own expertise”. This is why exchange of real information/real exchange
of information requires reference to both the other’s point of view and
his/her presentation of it, as well as the differences with one’s own.

May I just suggest the neologism of meta-structure rather than meta-data to
point to the complexity of the process? (I had suggested the presence of
reference to the other’s point of view as a ‘marker’.) This would help to
make the necessary bridge to cognitive science and psychology, without
limitation to an index or ‘rating’. But perhaps such a first marker or mode
of alert would be as much as the society can handle for the time being. . .

Thank you and best wishes,

Joseph

  _____  

From: Fis [mailto:fis-bounces at listas.unizar.es] On Behalf Of Pedro C.
Marijuan
Sent: mercredi, 22 janvier 2020 14:48
To: fis at listas.unizar.es
Subject: Re: [Fis] Cultural Relativsm

Dear List,

In science itself we have good instances of the information/disinformation
conundrum. We have a enormous stock of specialized knowledge in the order of
6,000 disciplines. In front of new problems or too complex ones, the
insistence to apply the own expertise creates real problems of
disinformation/misinformation and real clashes of cultures. Not long ago, in
the 60s & 70s, autism was attributed by leading experts (under the influence
of psychology & clinical schools) to "refrigerator mothers"--literally. It
added a lot to the suffering of many families. It still could be heard in
the 80s... In science we need a lot of discussion and often heated exchanges
to arrange the appropriate portions of knowledge that best fits the research
problems at hand. In general, confrontation between distant cultures,
scientific or otherwise, raises not very kind reactions.

And the new media--internet, mobiles, social networks-- also generate very
easily reactions of Khaneman's System 1 type (say fast, inconsiderate,
self-asserting). Part of the "hooks" that fake news display are based on
provoking that type of immediate visceral reactions:
outrage/fear/aggressiveness/despise & supremacism/etc. Both the amputated
(caricature) context to which these news refer and the type of reactions
they elicit become elements for seeing them as fake--rather easily for the
informed observer.  MacLuhan would have said that these new media are very
cool and very inclusive of ourselves. Personally I had observed long ago
that just irrelevant emails can ignite "flares" far more often than the old
media we used (letters), even the faxes of the 80s and 90s were already
elements more susceptible to create conflict.

By the way, this list has been traditionally a place of respect and good
tone, and of freedom of thought. Please, let us keep our high standards.

Best--Pedro  

El 22/01/2020 a las 2:41, Terrence W. DEACON escribió:

Is cultural-hyper-relativism intellectual disinformation or just
misinformation?

Does it depend on whether the intention is to mislead or just persuade?

What if the purveyor is a believer who is selfishly trying to get people to
agree with his theory?

Ah, the complex subtlety of the role of intent.

Are there metadata that might correlate with the intent behind
disinformation?

Assessing this would the analogue to using galvanic skin response and heart
rate for lie detection.

I.e. an index that would automatically update with each replication to
provide a crude "reliability rating" linked to each message.

Though fallible and defeatable it could be a first mode of alert - like the
initial pause when you answer a robocall.

On Tue, Jan 21, 2020 at 4:14 AM Joseph Brenner <joe.brenner at bluewin.ch>
wrote:

Dear Some,

This note is to denounce a principle of cultural relativism that has crept
into the Lecture discussion. The concept that opposing points of view are
always equally valid is a form of crypto-fascism that for me is totally
unacceptable. It is Trump’s “there are good guys on the other side”, which
included the murderers of a demonstrator. Does anyone on the list want to
suggest that clitorectomies are acceptable because “it’s part of the
culture”? I do not intend to include responses to such notes in my final
summary. If this position is not to the liking of some members, they can
erase my future messages, as I have theirs.

Joseph

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Professor Terrence W. Deacon
University of California, Berkeley

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-- 
-------------------------------------------------
Pedro C. Marijuán
Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group

pcmarijuan.iacs at aragon.es
http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/
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