Concept
Epistemic Weaponisation
CommunicationAI
An information strategy targeting the status of truth, not its content.
A structural intervention aimed at collapsing which knowledge counts as reliable and which source counts as legitimate. Not spreading lies but eroding trust in truth itself. Classical propaganda tried to refute specific claims; epistemic weaponisation targets the verification mechanism itself. The output is not a specific false belief but generalised distrust.
Essays that develop this concept
Related concepts
- Algorithmic SurrenderThe quiet, voluntary handover of decision to the machine in the name of convenience.
- Attention MiningAn industry in which human attention is extracted and depleted like a natural resource.
- Jevons ParadoxWhen a technology that uses a resource becomes more efficient, total consumption of that resource rises rather than falls.
- Rebound EffectEvery unit of efficiency saving is refilled by new demand and new capacity.