Human civilization is fundamentally built on shared information, integrating practical knowledge with cultural exchange, scientific understanding, and structured libraries. Information permeates our environment and influences our interactions with the natural world. The advent of computers did not create information abundance; rather, it exposed an existing rich landscape. However, reliance on inaccurate information produces pollution, distorting our grasp of reality. As understanding diverges from the complexities of nature and society, mistakes propagate, leading to significant failures, such as those seen in climate change, illustrating the critical importance of accurate information management.
We live in an information rich environment before we ever touched a computer, long before Turing existed. Whatever nominalist presence you think something has, it's richer in information.
When we work off of bad information, it has potentially vast repercussions. Bad information comes from mistakes and lies, and produces information pollution or information poison.
Misalign understanding to reality, and an experiment doesn't work as intended. Misalign understanding to reality at scale, and the mistakes compound until they oscillate and fall apart - like what's happening with climate change now.
We, as a species, despite the overwhelming amount of information at our fingertips, do not actually have a deep and pervasive bead on reality.
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