The Fragile Foundations of the Intelligent Age |
Our society faces a dramatic, but elusive, crisis.Â
Beneath a surface of political volatility and technological acceleration lie two quietly deteriorating foundations: truth and trust. Their erosion is reshaping the global landscape more profoundly than the events that dominate headlines.
Truth and trust are often treated as virtues, but they function as conditions: the prerequisites for coherent societies, functional institutions, and stable international systems. Without them, even the most advanced technologies fail to deliver progress; without them, democratic debate becomes impossible; without them, economic and social life slowly lose their connective tissue.
In past decades, societies could rely on a shared understanding that truth, however contested, was worth pursuing. Institutions—scientific, journalistic, judicial—created mechanisms through which facts were established, corrected, and publicly recognized. That framework has weakened. Digital networks and algorithmic curation have fragmented public life into discrete informational universes. The emergence of synthetic media and generative artificial intelligence has accelerated this fragmentation. It is increasingly difficult for citizens to determine whether what they see and hear is authentic. As a result, the very idea of a shared reality is weakening.
This shift does not merely increase the........