Burning the flow of information

As we are increasingly moving our lives into the digital domain, the data we provide keeps piling up and, as we consume more and more from the digital pool, the flow of data into that pool is increasing exponentially. There is a massive opportunity for blockchain tokenization in the future and that is the fingerprinting of data so that it can be verified.

Companies have to do this already for various compliance needs but more and more we are likely going to want to be able to track data at a granular level, not just our own, but the data that has been fed to us. If anything good has come out of the spread of fake news, it is how easily gamed society is through the manipulation of the information provided. This is even easier when the rapidity and diversity of the flow is as large as it is and people are able to be separated and siloed without them knowing it across social and news platforms.

Just like a chain of custody when it comes to providing evidence to a court, blockchain verification will be able to provide a verification of information, it doesn't necessarily mean that the information is accurate at that point but, the sources are able to be tracked and variance in the data or story can be compared. A news site that continually provides unverified or manipulated data will increasingly be held accountable either by the public who walks away or, legal consequences. Lies might not stop but, who lies will be seen. Blockchain verified.

One of the most important problems to solve in the future for the common person is going to be how to manage their data flow in and out. Potentially this is where blockchain could come into its own as it applications could provide various customizable filters at the personal level that will not only let in and out, but check that the flow passes some level of verification before being let through, much like a virus checker except it is checking for variation in the chain of custody of who's hands and what changes were made.

In time, there would be a very strong web of trust network developed about which hands were trustworthy and which were not. I wonder what would happen if the stories from Facebook during a presidential election could truly be sourced back to their origin. Would it be strange if a story first appeared from a location and source that had no direct connection to the topic?

Would an AI be able to quickly find discrepancies and flag potential issues for further review? Could each story on a news site come with a confidence of accuracy ranking that was created through cross-checking numerous sources, including verifiable eyewitness accounts? The verification and validity of our information could mean much more accurate and hopefully, a lot more boring, less sensationalized stories. Maybe then, people would lose interest in the news and start taking interest in what actually impacts their daily lives. Unlikely, people love the news.

What has happened over the last years with the explosion of the information flow is that the quality of information delivered has increasingly been driven downward, it is all about speed of service, virality and monetization of a 24 hour news cycle and and even shorter attention span. While the appearance of diversity of information has increased, we are much more likely to thumb through our feeds at an incredibly fast pace and the things that grab our attention have to be able to do it in fractions of moments and deliver a message in no more than a soundbite of information otherwise, we turn away.

This has meant that what is delivered has to be sensational to compel us to read and then, it doesn't have to deliver anything in depth and even if it does, most people do not read an entire article before sharing it anyway. What they are actually sharing, they don't know, they base it on the headline or, the image provided.

Blockchain doesn't necessarily change human nature overnight, but perhaps it could provide a more trustworthy evaluation of the content we have delivered to us through our various feeds. I wonder, how much of the things we share on social media would pass some level of quality control, likely not much. While the ability to share is empowering, there should also be the accountability of what is shared to some degree too.

While the technology itself is not ready to handle this kind of application yet, some of society are starting to recognize the need for a QMS on content spread across the internet. What we consume we become and when what we consume is controlled but unverifiable, we become what we are manipulated into being. Hacked to act the way someone else wants, thinking it is all our own idea.

If you think you are too smart to fall for the tricks, chances are, you already have.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]