Intellectual Entropy

Conspiracy theories. Echo chambers. Cults.

Why do reasonably intelligent folks somehow continue to fall into nonsensical rabbit holes, when the entirety of human knowledge is at our fingertips, right there for the plucking? This is the central paradox of our time: even as information has never been more accessible, misinformation seems to spread with equal (if not greater) ease.

In a world where facts can be cross-verified within seconds and a multitude of perspectives can be considered within minutes, why do we still grapple with false narratives and divisive ideologies?

The same sort of phenomenon happens in the world of physics. It’s described by one word:

Entropy.

Just as there are far more ways for particles to be in disordered states than ordered ones, there are significantly more ways for ideas to be wrong than right. And as we add more and more information into our mental mix—the good, the bad, and the utterly fabricated—the potential for “intellectual entropy” only increases.

Ex…