In Praise of Facebook

All sorts of good things have come to me through the internet. Not only did I find my wife on the web, I've found new ways to view the world, and a path to early retirement.

Much of this has been thanks to Facebook which is receiving far more criticism than it deserves. While it's true that it engages paid censors in order to suppress truth, it's nevertheless a net propagator of useful information. I've found all sorts of interesting ideas on Facebook. The electric universe paradigm would have been unknown to me without it, and so would many fascinating facts about the universe and the planet we inhabit. My books on physics wouldn't have come about without this information, nor would my book on personal finance, politics and economy. I would also have missed out on many valuable friendships, including some very interesting Norwegian expats living in here Porto, my adopted home town.

My life would have been a lot sadder without Facebook, and I suspect this to be true for many others as well. It is of course easy to become a little hooked on Facebook, but that's related to our general tendency towards obsessions more than Facebook in itself. Censorship is also an annoying feature of Facebook, but quite harmless in the greater scheme of things. Truth can still be propagated more efficiently through Facebook than more traditional channels, because truth thrives in networks.

The trick when it comes to truth is to recognize that it rarely comes to us through hierarchy, and that we can propagate truth simply by talking honestly and politely about fairly uncontroversial matters. There's no need to organize into hierarchical structures in order to convey truth. What's required is a non-abrasive style and an honest passion for truth. Not only will that kind of posts fly under the radar of censors, they burry deep into the soul of our target audience, which in turn can be verified when we receive thumbs up from the people we want to reach.

I still have a little way to go in order to perfect my style, but I'm definitely getting heard and understood. Just the other day, I posted something related to truth and how it's important to stay open for multiple interpretations when dealing with facts. The underlying message was an attack on dogmatic thinking in science and politics, but I made no point in mentioning this. That would have been counter-productive as it would have come across as a little too personal and aggressive.

The response to my post was interesting in that I received thumbs up from two people I had specifically in mind when I wrote my post. One from an old school friend who probably thinks me a little strange for producing a book on physics that contradicts dogma, and another one from a friend who tends to trust authority in politics a little too much for his own good. The message was read and understood, at least superficially: Life is more interesting when we're open to alternative views and interpretations.

Taking pleasure in two thumbs up on Facebook may seem strange. However, this is the whole point about truth and networks. No-one needs to be a central authority, and everyone can be an essential link. When truth spreads from one node to another, it progresses in turn from these nodes. Some ideas may spread slowly, others spread with lightning speed. Some ideas may be truthful and others may be false. However, only truth has the staying power to remain in the network. The network becomes in this way an engine for truth, and there's no way to stop it. Not even an army of censors can stop an idea who's time has come. 

By Facebook, Inc. - http://en.facebookbrand.com, Public Domain, Link