Epistemology in the Cloud - On Fake News and Digital Sovereignty

Henry Joseph Story

Url: http://bblfish.net/blog/2018/04/21/

Abstract: Before talking of Fake News, one must first ask what knowledge is. Starting from a quick and intuitive description of counter-factual logic, we proceed to give an initial account of a well-known definition of knowledge in terms of it. We then explore this intuitively and come up with criteria for a web that can work for all agents around the world, ie. a Web We Want. The architectural requirements we come up with, then point to a socio-technical dimension that is missing in the current web and that if added should increase trust, and so help both grow commerce which relies on trust and even reduce fake news.

TL;DR: Looking at fake news from a logical perspective, in order to show what architecture the web we want must have, if we are to deal with fake news.

Keywords: epistemology, cloud computing, modal logic, digital sovereignty, fake news, linked data

Submission Category: Vision Statement