We live in a fretful age. Truth is custom-made. Cynicism swells. Tribalism scorches the middle ground. Institutions languish in disrepute, and so do facts. Authority figures are suspect, unless they are demagogues with a base.
At the same time, we covet knowledge and certainty. We wield our smartphones and GoPros like swords of vengeance, posting images of wrongdoing on public evidence boards such as Facebook and Twitter. The world’s great libraries of books and maps and artifacts and genealogy are easily searchable online — thousands of years of cultural wisdom at our fingertips. The latest scientific findings are just a swipe away.
This appetite for the incontrovertible lies uneasily with our taste for the fringe. Conspiracies thrive. Quackery is rife. Fantasy-driven gossip and unreal reality TV become...
Alanna Mitchell is a journalist, author, and playwright who specializes in science.
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