The end of lying

There is too much information now to only pay lip service to the truth.

One of the biggest reasons I have been stuck on a chord about organised crime in tech, besides its intersection with my work and the terrible hurdles that causes me, is that it hearkens to a fundamental change brought about by the advent of the Worldwide Web: information symmetry. Ever since everyone connected to the Web achieved this, the rules of engagement around lying have changed.

Unfortunately, humans are not only creatures of habit but also creatures of culture and genetics, and lying has been a staple of those domains in some form or another for as far back as you can discern. But just as humans invented culture to rise beyond their form given to them by nature, we can—and will—rise beyond this wavebreak to carry on.

To be clear, most forms of dishonesty aren’t going anywhere. Circumstantially justified lying is no doubt here to stay, as is genuine ignorance of all forms since it’s not like the Web made us omnipotent. It just made it so that we can learn almost anything general if we really want to. This means we must turn our attentions to all of the people who ought to know better. Who comes to your mind when I say that? You already know who I’m thinking of.

To them I say: the time is up for you, and by that I mean your days are numbered before the public parses your actions as literally criminal behaviour. There is a burgeoning economy of yuppies and psychopaths that do not care if their actions have consequences. There are scientists and researchers who have an obligation to know before they speak on pain of being excommunicated from their fields. There are many who run podcasts and monopolise key positions in major organisations and use their influence to broker immoral researchers and organised criminals, often without ever even caring to know who these people are or what they actually do. “Don’t ask, don’t tell!” Although it isn’t going to happen overnight, all of you will soon find your behaviour encoded into criminal law as offences in every functioning legal system in the world.

This is an honest person who is genuinely confused by the persistence of a thing in his own industry that doesn’t make sense, never made sense, and never will make sense. He’s doing the thing honest people do: re-evaluate his own judgement that he’s really seeing what he’s seeing here. Sadly we can’t expect programmers to also be Sherlock Holmes protégés.

It’s one thing if you had no idea and no reason to know better. It’s one thing when you lie on pain of coercion or threats made by others. But when it’s a lie because you just can’t face the truth, or because you would rather profit than do the right thing, it’s already over for you. And I don’t think people are going to be in the mood to handle you with the kiddie gloves and let you go no ex post facto, either.

You don’t get to have the power that comes with the duty to know and then shirk knowing and bearing the truth that legitimised that power. This is no longer just a moral axiom; it’s an increasingly material fact. We know you are lying, so stop fucking lying. Or else.