2019 Electronic Resources & Libraries Annual Conference

Whenever we talk about free speech, or threats to free speech, we take an 18th- and 19th-century point of view. To Thomas Jefferson and John Stuart Mill, the world was quiet and dark. The challenge for them, and the challenge for most of the two centuries before this one, was to increase the number of speakers and the variety of thoughts. This made sense. Diversity of voices is good, in general. But by the 21st century we have not only solved that diversity problem, we have created a whole new problem: Cacophony. Everyone can speak. Everyone has a camera. Everyone can broadcast. Now the challenge is about amplifying the quality, not the quantity, of speech. This talk will discuss how we got here and what we can do to manage to think in this loud, bright world.