I actually began writing this in August 2019, but obviously got distracted… until I read this Guardian article https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/05/trust-in-scientists-grows-as-fake-coronavirus-news-rises-uk-poll-finds, suggesting that public trust in the work of scientists and health experts has grown during the coronavirus pandemic, amid a surge in misinformation about the virus.
In a world of DeepFakes and #FakeNews, and especially during our battle with COVID19, it is more important than ever for us to critically think and be sceptical of the information shared in the world around us.
Last year, I read Carl Sagan’s book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, which expertly predicted today’s world where fake news stories and Internet conspiracy run riot. In this book, Carl Sagan ‘aims to explain the scientific method to laypeople, and to encourage people to learn critical and skeptical thinking. He explains methods to help distinguish between ideas that are considered valid science and those that can be considered pseudoscience. Sagan states that when new ideas are offered for consideration, they should be tested by means of skeptical thinking and should stand up to rigorous questioning’.
From <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon-Haunted_World>
Sagan describes how there are “naïve questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question.” A cliché often used in corporate meeting rooms, but a phrase we could do better to act on more often.
I also love Carl
Sagan’s view on how “bright, curious children are a national and world
resource”. There is something amazing about the way children investigate
and discover the world they find themselves in, and something which tends to be
lost as we age. There is a brilliant Sagan quote, and one of my favourite from
the book, that he might not “…know the answer. Maybe no one knows. Maybe
when you grow up, you’ll be the first person to find
out”.
Sagan suggests children “need to be cared for, cherished, and encouraged;
but mere encouragement isn’t enough. We must also give them the essential tools
to think with.” I think this is a critical skill to learn at a young age,
but also crucially, one not to abandon as you grow older.
With the situation we all find ourselves in, I hope that this drives a real cultural change around trust in science and data based decision making, but also that we all begin to question and critically analyse the information we are provided with more scrutiny.