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The Half-Life of Facts
Book

The Half-Life of Facts

Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date

Penguin Group (USA), 2012 подробнее...


Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

For decades, doctors and athletes appeared in print ads vouching for cigarettes. As a result, many people came to believe that smoking was beneficial. Now, everyone understands its dangers. That’s how fleeting knowledge can be. In this fascinating explanation of how “facts” come and go, mathematician Samuel Arbesman details why much of what people know to be true today will turn out to be false tomorrow. He offers thought-provoking ideas, theories and scientific findings to explain the impact of his main point: facts have a dwindling lifespan. getAbstract recommends his rundown on why information expires to people who want to be in the know – even when what they know tonight may be wrong by morning.

Take-Aways

  • “Facts” that seem inviolable more often than not turn out to be wrong.
  • Understanding how facts change will help you make sense of the world.
  • Science can predict world-shaking factual changes or knowledge “phase transitions.”

About the Author

Applied mathematician and network scientist Samuel Arbesman was a senior scholar at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Currently, Arbesman is a senior adjunct fellow of the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado, and an associate of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University.


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