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Selective Information Overload

Here’s your weekly Science Matters column by David Suzuki with Faisal Moola.

Selective Information Overload

The most powerful force shaping our lives is science, especially when
it’s applied by medicine, the military and corporations. All too often,
new technologies become part of our lives without much forethought as
to their full impacts on our society, let alone that of the non-human
environment. Just think of nuclear power, genetic engineering, and the
development of new toxic chemicals to keep our lawns greener or
vegetables blemish-free, for example.

When I began my television career in 1962, I thought that all
the public needed was more information about science and technology so
it could make better decisions based on facts. Well, people are getting
far more information today than they ever did 45 years ago. Although
there are more facts, there are also more opinions. And we still make
ill-informed decisions.

I now believe we are experiencing a major problem in the early-21st
century: selective information overload. And by this I mean that we can
sift through mountains of information to find anything to confirm
whatever misconceptions, prejudices or superstitions we already
believe. In other words, we don’t have to change our minds. All we have
to do is find something to confirm our opinions, no matter how
misguided or wrong they may be.

Whenever I give a talk on global warming, someone in the audience
often tells me that the Earth is going into a period of global cooling
and should be burning more fossil fuels. When I ask for evidence, they
typically answer, “a website”. Well, yes, there are lots of websites
saying that global warming is some kind of left-wing plot, junk
science, baloney, etc.

There are also dozens of websites, books and videos about
intelligent design or creationism, pyramid power, UFOs, the Bermuda
triangle, crop circles, Atlantis, alien abductions, and so on. And this
brings us back to our big challenge: sifting through information
overload.

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