We may be a bit too ignorant about ignorance

At the Cambridge Disinformation Summit, I learned a terrifying new word: Agnotology. It is “the study of the deliberate, culturally induced creation of ignorance, often through the spread of misinformation or manufactured uncertainty.” The word was coined by Robert Proctor and Iain Boal in the early 1990s. In the book of the same name, Proctor refers to a memo from a tobacco company in the 1960s, saying that “Doubt is our product...” Super scary. Paraphrasing some of the ideas from the book – we need to deconstruct our notion of ignorance as always accidental, a starting point and always undesirable. Sometimes ignorance and its bedfellow doubt are deliberately induced. And sometimes they are even helpful. For years I have been fascinated by situations when ignorance is beneficial. For example: - The benefit of bringing ‘fresh eyes’ to innovation. Related to what Taoists called “The Uncarved Block” (樸). - Ignorance as a lubricant of the insurance industry. If everyone knew exactly how risky their situation was, most may not be willing to pool risks with others who are more risky. (Similar to the economic concept of the ‘lemons problem’.) - Slightly less pleasant, but some military tactics require ignorance. For example if a small number of troops are being sacrificed for the overall good. Related to this, I also love Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger’s book “Delete”, which focuses on the importance and difficulty of forgetting in a digital age. Maybe companies need to capitalize ignorance as an asset on their balance sheet, and recognize forgetting as a core competence. Happy weekend everyone. #unthink #unask #unlearn #ignorance #worldwithout truth #misinformation #disinformation #malinformation #agnotology