The premise of the Apple TV+ sci-fi series “Dark Matter” is that our decisions create an infinite number of possible realities. The plot centers on a scientist who creates a “box” that gives him access to these realities, which reside behind an infinite number of doors within the box. Opening a particular door gives him access to a universe created by a previous set of decisions, made by him and others. During one episode, he opens a door to find an idyllic world. People are living in harmony, technology is highly advanced and problems like poverty, war and pollution seem to have been solved. When he asks a person living in that reality how all this was accomplished, she lists three concepts: people agreeing on basic facts, committing to use technology in a way that does not destroy the environment or humanity, and valuing empathy.
Considering recent events, especially the events of July 13, we are in dire need of focusing on all three of these ideas, particularly as they relate to the way we consume and disseminate information. Our collective failure in how we manage information has us speeding down the road to self-destruction.
Even as most of our political and cultural leaders came together to condemn the violence of July 13, the most destructive technology of our age allowed the hateful and the unhinged to make cruel comments and spread falsehoods — including the false ideas that Democratic leaders were somehow involved or that the violence was staged by the Trump campaign in an attempt to draw sympathy. In more benign but still divisive posts, thousands of us appointed ourselves security experts and immediately weighed in on what should have been done differently.
Such expressions are certainly allowed in our free and open society, and we need true experts and those whose job it is to oversee our security agencies to investigate and review what went wrong. There is also room for healthy and respectful debate. But in our current media structure, the most ill-informed and worst ideas are often amplified, despite their potential to do real damage.
In a 2017 article, scholar Francis Fukuyama wrote: “The Internet was supposed to liberate us from gatekeepers; and, indeed, information now comes at us from all possible sources, all with equal credibility. There is no reason to think that good information will win out over bad information.”
In our current situation, the bad does seem to be defeating the good within our information system. Now is the time to rethink the whole thing.
While we can’t expect life to be like a TV show, a sincere, collective effort to apply the ideas of empathy, safe use of technology and agreement on basic facts within our media landscape will bring us much closer to a peaceful, functional society than what we have now: a world in which our use of technology IS destroying both the Earth and humanity (both literally and metaphorically), many of us are unable to discern truth or agree on facts, and we suffer from a severe lack of empathy. These trends will inevitably rob us of our safety, prosperity and peace.
A massive media literacy/media safety effort, along with reasonable regulation of social media platforms, especially in the area of protecting children, would go a long way in curbing the destructive nature of social media and help us rebuild a fact-based society. A commitment within our political, educational, business and civic organizations to respect and encourage a wide range of varying but reasonable viewpoints would help us find the best ideas and build respect for each other. A focus within our families to reach out to and learn about those who are different from us would instill an enduring sense of empathy in our society.
In the “Dark Matter” episode, the scientist observes that the key to an idyllic society is about “the people, not things.” The PEOPLE decided to build a world worth living in. It is time for all of us to make that decision. A good place to start is what we accept and expect from our information system.
Jason Manning is the director of student media at Arizona State University and teaches at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.