BY JOHN WALCOTT, GREGORY F. TREVERTON, AND PARI ESFANDIARI

First Published at The Hill

In his dialogue, Phaedrus, the Greek philosopher Plato’s King Thamus argued that rather than aiding human memory, the Egyptian god Theuth’s gift of writing offered only the appearance of wisdom; 2,400 years later, Plato’s debate has resurfaced to blame Google and Facebook for our current misfortunes. The struggle to understand the effects of digitization on the news media, politics, commerce, and the very concept of truth itself remains in its infancy, so far without an heir to Plato. Read more …