Truth

Abstract

This chapter explains how truth must be the central goal of any resistance to corporate totalitarianism. Yuval Harari (2011) claims that humanity has been living in a post-truth world for some time and that creating collective narratives is essential for religion, politics, and nation building. He also claims that truth and power cannot travel on the same road together but must diverge because power is not possible without the creation of fictions. But Yuval is a historian and not a scientist. What is fundamental to human progress, and life without the horrors and uncertainties of hunter-gatherer existence and cave dwelling, is technological progress, which is possible only with scientific method and commitment to truth. The first casualty of war is truth, and so indeed, was the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The challenge for humanity is not to allow truth, and true scientific method, to be dispensed with in the quest for power; otherwise, liberty and comfort will be lost. Developments in distributed ledger technology (DLT) supported by blockchain can be used as a powerful defence of truth and potentially an end to corruption and lies.