Our minds are constantly under attack, it is critical humanity develop some sort of evolved information immune system.
I used to think:
There is nothing a teacher or anyone else for that matter could have said to change my sexual orientation or feelings about my gender. I thought, quit making such a big deal out of nothing.
But now I realize:
Either nature, or nurture, blessed me with an unusual mental firewall. Despite a culture of education that encouraged unquestioning acceptance, I maintained my curiosity and stubbornness to seek deep understanding before internalizing any sort of input.
For every person like me, there are several who are vulnerable or even attracted to manipulators spoon feeding selfish ideologies.
So now what:
When I pair this new understanding with my very strong intuition that freedom of speech is the most important foundational right for a thriving humanity, I become conflicted.
There is not a government or organization on Earth that can be trusted to be the judge of truth. Abuse of this absolute power is guaranteed.
But it is critical that we train future humans with good information. The feedback cycle for generational cultural change is very slow, and incredible damage can take place if we get far enough off of track.
I wonder, how do we strengthen our collective ability to tune out harmful noise, and focus on healthy signal, without imposing limits on individual’s right?
I think that community notes is a good start here on 𝕏, but there are so many other abuse vectors. The internet has provided leverage to those who would harm us.
If I could ask one favor from our simulation architect, it would be to level up humanity’s BS detector.
Love you.