Bullshit erodes trust - why we do it and how to stop (Copy)

Trust thought for today - I was at a meeting at least 10 years ago and saw a presentation from Pierre-Benoit Joly in which he said this. I think about it all the time.

This was well before mobile phones and social media changed society irrevocably. Before many people, incl me, began to get present to just how innovation changes us as individuals and as societies, often without us being conscious of it. Does it matter? Sometimes.

But how do we even ask these big questions 'Do we even want to go there?', 'What sort of society do we want and does this form of innovation have a place there?' 'We don't want this now we see what it is doing?' 'We really want more of this but it's not commercial.'

Particularly when governance has to play catch up, funders mainly care about making money and innovators, if they think about it at all, naturally see their products in isolation and feel their new thing is going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread.

We need to figure out quickly how to do this. Changing incentives including GDP and shareholder primacy might help. Challenging academic science's detachment from reality and thrall to publications, and funders lack of any questions whatever, is a start. Certainly Policy makers will have to be braver, not propagate the 'all innovation is good' ideology, ask better questions and empower the involvement of citizens. We also need to realise our power to say no.

Lots of hard and not quick things to do.