Rediscovering Ignorance

I tend to believe that abstractions are real things. When I look at a tree, there is something really there—it is not “merely” a collection of atoms. The atoms are arranged as they are because they are part of something larger, something we are able to recognize and have given a name.

We tend to think of morality as a kind of compass. Some possible worlds are better than others—more just, less painful, more full of flourishing—and morality, on this view, is what points us toward those better worlds, or what we use to measure how close to them we are.

We live in an age of abundant access to information. With information comes knowledge—or so thought the idealists who led us down this path. Over time, we came to understand the darker side of “Information wants to be free.” Information can be true or false, illuminating or deceptive, intended to empower or to manipulate. Just as importantly, there are practical limits to the how much information a human being can consume.