2023 Essay Title 3: Bubbles

TOK Talk · Bubbles: 2023 TOK Essay Title 3

In this episode, I talked to Ian Galley (IBDP English Language & Literature) Nicole Mamphey (Science and Applied Ethics) about TOK Essay Title 3: Does it matter if our acquisition of knowledge happens in “bubbles” where some information and voices are excluded? Discuss with reference to two areas of knowledge. 

​We had a rich discussion about “bubbles'' as they exist in social media networks and internet platforms as well as within academia, algorithms, and how this contributes to, enhances and distorts our bubbles. We also discussed many of the real world consequences (why it matters!) that what we’re learning may occur in these bubbles.

We discussed relevant ideas including retracted findings of psychology and vaccination studies, bubbles in comedy and how it fits with the Benign Violation Theory, perspectives and the Soldier vs. Scout Mindset by Julia Galef, Spiral of Silence Theory and the social tendency to reinforce bubbles and silences descending voices, and the Metaverse. We discuss the difference between a community and a bubble: which one is more open to other ideas? How do they overlap? 

We unpack and explore: Does it matter (to who? for what?) Does it matter to our acquisition of knowledge? Does it matter to the voices that are excluded? We challenge the notion that science is objective, and discuss how even in the sciences we want to reinforce what fits our own perspective and beliefs. We also begin to discuss voices that are excluded: silenced voices - why this matters!
Links: 

• The Social Dilemma Netflix Movie Trailer & Website
• So You've Been Publicly Shamed (Book by Jon Ronson) - Chapter 5 (regarding the debunking of Zimbardo’s infamous Stanford Prison Experiment, and the interview with Eshelman (the guard that admitted to faking his actions in the experiment)
• Benign Violation Theory “integrates existing humor theories to propose that humor occurs when and only when three conditions are satisfied: (1) a situation is a violation, (2) the situation is benign, and (3) both perceptions occur simultaneously.”
• Soldier Mindset Ted Talk by Julia Galef - Why you think you're right -- even if you're wrong
• Spiral of Silence Theory 
• Ready Player One (Novel by Ernest Cline) and Ready Player Movie Trailer
• Wind River Movie Trailer
• How to be an Antiracist a very powerful and useful book by American author and historian Ibram X. Kendi
• An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States revisionist history book by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz