Sometimes I feel like it’s the early 1800 and I’m trying to convince the world that a wide variety of diseases can be understood by the germ theory. Infectious diseases hit almost every part of the body and can cause a wide variety of conditions. It could certainly have been considered counter–intuitive to suggest there was a single underlying process. Today we know that there are many different types of microorganisms which manifest in many different forms of disease. Understanding the process by which organisms spread from person to person was a major breakthrough, but the initial barrier was accepting that such a wide variety of diseases could be caused by the same process.

This is at the heart of the DT problem. DT spreads from person to person, infecting them and moving on. The internet has lead to a faster spread of DT. This is why, as information flows more freely, the world is not getting smarter, it is getting dumber. Hate and small-mindedness are more contagious and spread much more easily than logic and reason. This is why we have HAMAS and ISIS. This is why almost 90% of Palestinians support shooting rockets into Israel. They are completely poisoned by DT and have almost completely lost the ability to problem-solve.

So what is the solution? During the early days of understanding infectious disease it was “wash you hands”. So what is the equivalent of washing your informational hands? FIRST ask “What is the goal and is it consistent with my values?” SECOND ask “Does spreading this piece of information really help achieve the goal?” THIRD ask “Is the degree of dichotomaticity appropriate for the situation?”