Implications of information sharing

[DeagolGardner]

Hi (new here). I've been thinking about the web and it's purpose of sharing information with other people. I'm beginning to wonder whether sharing all information is strictly a good idea. What if I could share some information that could then be modified and used to control people. How can I know whether the information I share will save or doom us? I feel that I should be careful with what I share as governments can take information and adapt it into a tool of propaganda. If the government know what you are thinking and what the general mood is amongst the population they can easily reflect this back to you in order to keep you in a controlled state. What are the rules of information sharing and what will benefit us and keep us free?

[Phi for All]

Vigilance is almost always a great thing. However, sharing information is such an important part of being human and especially being a human interested in science, that we can afford to take risks with it. The quickest way back to the Dark Ages, imo, is to stop sharing information.

[DeagolGardner]

Vigilance is almost always a great thing. However, sharing information is such an important part of being human and especially being a human interested in science, that we can afford to take risks with it. The quickest way back to the Dark Ages, imo, is to stop sharing information.

 

Why would that send us back to the dark ages? Wouldn't the information we have already shared count for something?

[Phi for All]

 

Why would that send us back to the dark ages? Wouldn't the information we have already shared count for something?

 

For this generation, and the next, maybe. But my grandchildren would grow up in a world where people had stopped sharing what they know on a global scale. They wouldn't have the access to diverse perspectives that I do, and their grandchildren would have even less.

 

There are a great many things that make humans special in our environment, but some of the most important are high degrees of cooperation and communication. If we didn't have them, our high intelligence would manifest itself very differently. We might not even be as intelligent without them.

 

I think of knowledge as a tool, it isn't good or evil. Think of all the times you've heard of knowledge being used in a bad way. No matter how many you can think of, for each of those there are hundreds, thousands of times when knowledge is used beneficially. And since you can't know if the information you share will save us or doom us, I think you should just use your best judgment and share what you know, since the benefits seem worth the risks.

 

We get saved all the time by sharing knowledge. Not once have we been doomed. Um, that I know of.

[StringJunky]

The more everyone knows, the less anyone can exploit them. Ignorance is what keeps people down, not knowledge. If you want evidence, look into the period when The Bible got printed for general consumption; The Church started to lose its grip at that point in time; the masses were no longer beholden to the interpretations and whims of the privileged few.

[Fenweruha]

The more everyone knows, the less anyone can exploit them. Ignorance is what keeps people down, not knowledge. If you want evidence, look into the period when The Bible got printed for general consumption; The Church started to lose its grip at that point in time; the masses were no longer beholden to the interpretations and whims of the privileged few.

 

Good point but I see everyone fighting each other and it just seems to be one group pitted against another. If I give up my power (knowledge) then I will be exploited won't I?

 

(Oops looks like I already had an account).

Edited March 31, 2015 by Fenweruha

[Phi for All]

 

Good point but I see everyone fighting each other and it just seems to be one group pitted against another. If I give up my power (knowledge) then I will be exploited won't I?

 

Maybe. It's a risk, it could happen.

 

Don't forget, as you see the groups fighting each other, that you're probably seeing that because the media will always go for the story with the most aggression. We seem to stay on the same channel more often when the story is about something dangerous.

 

But look beyond those stories, and there are many other stories of groups that are using knowledge gleaned from a myriad of sources to benefit many of our most noble ventures. And science has flourished in this century in large part because of improved communication and cooperation between nations and foreign scientists.

 

The biggest problem you run into by not sharing knowledge is you have no way to review that knowledge. Until you share it with someone else who can help you confirm your knowledge is right in the first place, it's not really meaningful. And most ideas are wrong, so it's good to share so you can either find out if your idea can be made to work, or if it's completely wrong. And being wrong just means you can drop that line of thinking and move on to something productive. Yay!