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If home security is about making sure our possessions are safe, financial security is about keeping our money safe, national security is about keeping our country safe, then epistemic security is about keeping our knowledge safe.

Episteme is a Greek philosophical term, meaning "to know". Epistemic security therefore involves ensuring that we do in fact know what we know, that we can identify claims that are unsupported or not true, and that our information systems are robust to "epistemic threats" such as fake news.

In our report, we explore the potential countermeasures and areas of research that may help preserve epistemic security in democratic societies. But in this article, let's look at four key trends that have exacerbated the problem, and made it increasingly difficult for societies to respond to pressing challenges and crises:

1. Attention scarcity

As early as the 13th Century well before the invention of the printing press in Europe scholars complained about information overload. In 1255, theDominican Vincent of Beauvais wrote of "the multitude of books, the shortness of time and the slipperiness of memory".

However, the internet has made massive quantities of hard-to-verify information more easily accessible than ever before. It is difficult to sift through which tidbits are true and which are not. Our limited capacity for attention is simply spread too thin.

Abundance of information and limitations on attention creates a fierce "attention economy" in which governments, journalists, interest groups and others must compete for eyeballs. Unfortunately, some of the most effective attention-grabbing strategies appeal to people's emotions and existing beliefs, and these sources are otherwise ambivalent about the truth.

2. Filter bubbles and bounded rationality

A particularly worrisome consequence of the attention economy is the formation of filter bubbles, where people are exposed primarily to their own pre-held beliefs, and opposing views are filtered out.

When facing information overload, people naturally prefer to pay more attention to like-minded individuals in their own communities over unfamiliar outsiders. Using social media platforms, it is easier than ever to form and join communities unified by shared beliefs and values.

The epistemic consequence of filter bubbles is called "bounded rationality". If access to information is the foundation of good reasoning and decision-making, then limiting ones access to potentially relevant information by becoming entrenched in filter bubbles will in turn limit ones ability to reason well.

Visit link:
The greatest security threat of the post-truth age - BBC News