#8: Finding Truth on the New Internet
We’ve now discussed all the design and technical aspects of the new internet but one thing we haven’t discussed is how to find what is true versus false in this new internet.
In the current internet, the big internet companies are responsible for their own content moderation policies which effectively becomes the collective truth for internet users. While Big Tech companies get criticized a lot (and rightly so) for their opaque content moderation policies, it is true that the internet without any truth finding mechanism will completely be filled by misinformation. This is specially true in the next era of the internet where AI threatens to generate mass misinformation at scale.
So the question is how can we establish truth in a decentralized way without global centralized companies arbitrating the truth. To answer this question, we will discuss types of truths and types of mechanisms the new internet needs to have to establish these truths.
Truths can be of the following 4 types:
1) Collective Truths: All human collectives are based on some collective beliefs or collective truths. These collective truths can range from belief in common gods or shared languages to, in the case of companies, belief in a common vision. Without these collective truths, communities fall apart and can no longer sustain themselves.
The current internet companies are ultimately based on just commerce so they keep showing content that fuels up commercial desires like food, travel, clothing instead of content that can bind communities together.
The new internet allows any community to filter a subsection of the global content according to their beliefs and voluntarily choose to view that content instead of what companies whant to show. Thus communities and collectives will have the power to curate content according to their beliefs for example the fitness community can curate just healthy food content and fitness inspiration instead of watching rest of the content.
2) Scientific Truths: These are the most objective type of truths which are true no matter if we believe in them or not. For e.g. F=ma is undeniably true in it’s boundaries of application. The discipline of science started from the premise of independent replication i.e. anyone can check the data of the experiments and verify. But overtime as scientific equipment has become more and more advanced and centralized in labs and universities, it’s become difficult to independently verify the data and instead we have moved to peer reviews which is just social consensus amongst scientists.
The new internet provides a mechanism for credible scientific equipment makers to directly and without any interference cryptographically sign the experimental conditions and the data directly to the blockchain for everyone to see. The tamper proof and permanent record on the blockchain can re-establish a culture of independent replication in the discipline of science.
3) Financial Truths: The practical world of commerce also has to establish financial truths like what is the fair value of something. This depends on the available supply and consumer demand. In case of companies it also depends on people’s expectation of growth. So most financial truths depend on human’s needs and are ultimately social in nature. We see this in action again and again with the rise and fall of financial assets based on public sentiment.
But today the public sentiment and financial information are running on completely different databases (on social media and exchanges respectively). This creates major gaps in truth finding because the financial interests of influencers who shape public sentiment remain opaque.
The new internet based on blockchain technology offers a major advantage in establishing the financial truths: Linking influencer reputation with their assets. In the new internet that financial holdings of an influencer are transparent for everyone to see. Thus the influencer’s money is literally where their mouth is. This creates unparallel level of transparency and reveals the true incentives of any influencer. If their financial performance is actually good they will be rewarded with more reputation and funds otherwise not. Also what they predicted about future performance of assets is on an immutable asset so if they predicted things which are true, their reputation goes up, otherwise it goes down.
Thus the new internet establishes financial rewards and punishments for saying statements which turned out to be true or false in the future thereby establishing information markets.
4) Individual Truths: No matter how much attempt we make at arriving collective truths whether socially or through markets or through science, there are always some individual truths. Humanity often makes progress through these individual truths that’s why the famed Venture Capitalist Peter Thiel asks the question to founders,”What beliefs do you have that no one else agrees with?”
The new internet will allow individuals to be able to curate their own content feed and tune out the noise and distraction of the current internet. This gives individuals personal time and headspace back to be able to live with their own thoughts and cultivate new knowledge that they can share back.
Therefore the new internet establishes truth in a decentralized manner through:
Individual and community moderation
Cryptographic sygnatures
Immutable content database
Linking influencer reputation to their assets
Establishing information markets
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