Lecture Notes Toward a Theory of Everything — Information, Power, and Problems

A discussion and overview of the following ideas

• • Why we see things differently.
  • Why we don’t like to be wrong.
  • Why it is dangerous to question authority.
  • Where we got the letter A.
  • The morbidity of Puritan children’s books.
  • How culture and community impact information.
  • The origin of the political parties in America.
  • How information is dangerous and can be used to disrupt or preserve a social order.

take note of the following terms:

• • cognitive dissonance
  • confirmation bias
  • disconfirmation bias
  • oppositional media hostility
  • propaganda
  • top-down information systems
  • bottom-up information systems
  • public sphere
  • social responsibility theory of journalism
  • objectivity
  • the Fairness Doctrine
  • Net Neutrality