Monday, April 14, 2008

Infotopia, 1 & 2

I found this reading interesting, particularly if you consider much of the topic in chapter's 1 and 2 would be hard to imagine accomplishing just a few year ago without the Internet. Sunstein talks about how a group of people or society collects and filters information so that they can make a decision.

Sunstein suggest that in a group setting, people will often gravitate towards a strongly stated opinion, especially if their own opinions are not fully formed. People tend to find it difficult to stray from the majority of the group especially if the majority opinion fall within our own prejudices and reaffirm our devout beliefs. As I read this section my thoughts turned to Bush's' justification for the Iraq war. Was the group setting that assembled the information dominated by one strong opinion? How much deliberation was there prior to submitting the evidence to Bush? Was there someone who chose to delete certain items that they did not want presented (as Megan referred to in her blog about Wikipedia)?

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