Information Turns to Story Turns to Power
Understanding the power of information, misinformation, and disinformation, and how it shapes us and creates human networks.
Information and Power: A Three-Part Exploration: Part 1
You're being splattered with it everyday. It's seeping into your pores, into your brain, your very soul. You’re all sticky with it.
It's information.
Do you know the difference between information, misinformation, and disinformation? You should. It’s vital to your survival in the world.
Forty-some-thousand years ago there were a few of us humanoid species running around huddle up with like-kind-humanoids picking ticks off each other. In Europe, we (homo-sapiens) were battling it out with our cousins, the stocky, smart, resourceful Neanderthals. We were leaner. They were stronger. We were equally intelligent. We both made tools and gathered fruits and herbs and roots. We both cared for and protected our tight-knit communities.
But Neanderthals were closed off. They lived in small groups, rarely interacting beyond their immediate circles.
We were creative. Homo sapiens were storytellers. We shared stories that extended beyond our groups. Stories of the hunt. Stories of plants. Stories of animals. These stories united tribes and passed information. Stories created connections, linking tribes into expansive networks through our shared myths, rituals, religions, and knowledge.
This difference was revolutionary.
It was the difference between extinction and survival.
Stories enabled Homo sapiens to cooperate at scales unimaginable to Neanderthals. A shared belief in a hunting deity could unite hundreds of people across tribes to track prey, pool resources, or defend against predators. It brought us together to celebrate stories.
Neanderthals packs didn’t bound together. They didn’t coordinate. They didn’t share information beyond those sitting around the campfire. Neanderthals couldn’t match this level of coordination. Over time, the storytelling species didn’t just survive—they thrived, expanding their influence across continents and driving Neanderthals to extinction.
The secret to Homo sapiens’ dominance wasn’t brute strength or even superior intelligence. It was information. Or rather shared information. This ability to share information, far and wide, transformed us. It created our cooperative civilizations. It created our religions, our economies, and our cultures.
Yet, as powerful and world changing/creating as information is, it is also dangerous. In today’s world, where information flows faster than ever, the lines between truth, information, misinformation, and disinformation blur, threatening the very networks that made us who we are.
Understanding the difference between information that connects and information that divide is essential in an era where power lies in shaping the narrative. To grasp the stakes of this struggle, we must start with the basics: what is information, and how does it influence the way we live and think?
What Is Information?
Information is data or knowledge that helps you understand something. It can be words, pictures, icons, symbols, or even sounds that tell you about things. It’s a cave painting, the written word, a company logo. It’s anything that helps you understand or learn more about the world around you.
Is information a quest? Information begins when we ask questions. We attempt to explain our existence. What is that light in the sky? What type of tree is that? Why do I get angry? or sad? or happy? Why am I here?
In this way - this search for answers - information is a quest.
Think of information as our attempt to explain our reality, the nature of our existence, and to survive. Information is the raw material of this quest for survival. It’s bits of knowledge we gather to make sense of our world. It is not static. It is not alive but it evolves as it moves from one person to another, one group to another, shaped by context, perspective, culture, and interpretation.
And in this manner, it is not effective information until it has been shared.
Information is more than just facts or data. Its true power emerges when it is shared, turning solitary discovery into collective wisdom. When early humans painted on cave walls or passed down myths around the fire, they weren’t just preserving knowledge, they were creating a shared story through which their groups could understand the world and each other. This sharing of information transformed isolated questions into communal answers, fostering trust, cooperation, and the foundation of human networks.
The quest for information—our drive to ask, seek, and share—is what sets us apart. It allows us to transcend individual limitations, pooling knowledge across generations and geographies. Yet, the power of information lies not just in its accuracy but in its ability to inspire action, shape beliefs, and unite or divide. It is both a tool and a force, capable of building civilizations or unraveling them, depending on how it is used and understood.
Information builds networks.
Above all, information connects people into larger or smaller groups.
Information is Not the Truth or Even Wisdom
Information is often mistaken for the truth or sometimes wisdom. It is neither. Information is the raw material—data, facts, and observations—that we collect and share. Truth aligns accurately with reality. It is a collection of facts that correspond with our existence. The truth aligns with what we see and experience and with the facts.
The problem with the truth is, it is very hard. It doesn’t come easy. It takes research. It takes thought and analysis. It’s much easier to pop out a story to explain some phenomenon. If a freak snow storm comes and wipes out all of the crops on your farm it’s easier to say that the woman on the next farm to you, gave you the evil eye and cursed your farm because she’s a witch. It’s easier than learning about climate patterns and changes and environmental issues.
The truth is nuanced. It doesn’t come wrapped with little bows. You have to work to understand the truth. This is why stories spread faster than the truth. Why take weeks and weeks to learn and research and think about something when a story can explain it all in 10 minutes?Wisdom goes one step farther. It’s the thoughtful application of knowledge and truth, rooted in experience, understanding, and insight, to make our way through life.
Imagine the morning weather report predicts rain. This forecast is information—a piece of data that informs you of a potential reality. If the prediction accurately reflects the weather, it is also true. But it’s wisdom that enables you to decide how to prepare. Do you carry an umbrella? Or reschedule that planned picnic? Or sit by the window and appreciate the rain as a gift for the garden? Wisdom draws on more than the information at hand. It factors in past experiences, judgment, and context to guide action.
Information vs. the Truth vs. Chaos
We know that information shared as stories creates human networks. Networks are power centers. The larger the network and the more ingrained information or ‘belief system’ within the group, the more power derived from the connections. It’s information connected to humans, creating a network, which creates power. Each member of the network pulls power from the group. It creates an identity members adopt. It can be difficult to break. If they no longer believe the information of the group, they will lose access to the group. And to the influence or cache or power of the group.
If the information of the group doesn’t reflect reality of its members or society, it will begin to breakdown. Truth is an accurate reflection of information on the reality of our lives. Networks built upon faulty information will at some point run up against reality.
The network will only remain strong if members decide to ignore the truth. This is a difficult realization for all. If they don’t continue with the group they lose access to the group. They can lose a belief system or a social group or a political ideology or a religion.
Inject the truth and over time a network will begin to breakdown. This is why history has believed that more information is always better. The more information we can access - it’s centralized information vs. decentralized information - the clearer the truth will become (we will discuss whether this is true or not in Part 2: The God Complex—Do Information Networks Always Centralize Power?). A company that makes fake medical claims may sell lots of products until the information or science behind the products becomes prevalent and accessible to all. Then the product doesn’t reflect reality or the knowledge of the group. People stop buying the bullshit.
In this way, an injection of the truth into a faulty system, is like a cancer. It attacks the system. It breaks it down. Instead of creating networks it breaks connections. When the connections begin to break the network fails. Just as our bodies fail when cancer has broken down the systems of our bodies.
This creates chaos. Groups are broken. Beliefs are broken. Networks crumble into smaller more radical groups. Those that remain often become more removed from reality. They believe in the group regardless of the truth.
It creates fear.
So which is preferred? Cohesion and the cooperation of large groups over reality? Or the truth which - at least in the short term - can breakdown our networks and trust?
Misinformation and Disinformation: The Building Blocks of Power
Misinformation is simply information that is unintentionally incorrect. Maybe the information is based upon a scientific theory that is no longer accurate. Maybe the information is based upon religious texts or cultural myths or quick takes on spouted blurbs on social media. Usually, it’s information that hasn’t been researched or vetted. The spreader of misinformation believes they are communicating truthful stories.
But they are not. They are spreading lies.
The sneaky fact is that misinformation is just as powerful and effective in building networks as the truth. Maybe more effective. Misinformation is usually simpler. And simple spreads faster because it’s easier. Usually, misinformation is also aligned with and reenforces your current beliefs. No one has asked questions, or researched it, or taken the time to think about it. They’ve just accepted it. It sounds true, or they want it to be true, or it’s easier to face than the truth, so it must be true.
And therefore it spreads.
Disinformation is different. It’s the intentional creation and spread of information that is incorrect. This is done to mislead. It is done to control. And most often it is done to centralize power in a ruling party or individual. It is designed to create a simple paradigm that will connect people, increase the network, and build a power base.
Is there a difference between misinformation and disinformation? Yes, it’s intent. Disinformation is deliberately created to deceive such as election related propaganda. It comes with easily repeated blurbs like immigrants are evil or the world is run by secret cabals or the world is flat. But both are effective. Both create networks. Both are not truthful.
Information is a Virus: Story is the Super-Spreader
Yep, information is like a dangerous virus. It lives when it finds a host. It seeps into the hosts brain, infects his thoughts and beliefs but isn’t impactful, outside his personal existence, until it spreads. Information doesn’t spread by itself. It has to be intentionally spread to become alive. The spec of dust floating around carrying our information waiting for a host to land on and infect is story. Story spreads info. Facts alone may be powerful but aren’t infectious. Story infects. It captures attention, latches onto emotions, and takes root in the psyche, making the information it carries nearly impossible to ignore.
Back to the early days of our wandering, our hunter-gatherer relatives told stories that carried information about how to hunt, where to find water, or what plants could heal. We needed them to survive. Think of it as a beneficial bacteria living and breathing and crawling all over our skin. Story enveloped us. It created shared knowledge and collective intelligence.
A tribe that shared a common myth or collective memory could unify its members, fostering cooperation and trust far beyond what personal relationships could achieve. Stories became the mechanism by which humans connected and scaled their networks, spreading information like a contagion across tribes and generations.
But stories didn’t just spread information; they amplified its power by creating connections. The more engaging the story, the faster it spread, the faster it connected and infected minds. It drove action but it was slow. It spread via oral communications or cave wall paintings.
Each step in human evolution has been driven by the speed of information distribution. The faster stories spread, the faster they changed behavior and thought.
Information now travels at around 50 million miles per hour. Some say, the information spread may soon near the speed of light. The stories have evolved and adapted to this new method of delivery. Just like a virus, information mutated to become faster, and thrive in it’s new environment. Stories mutated. What once united and strengthened can now mislead and divide, as misinformation and disinformation exploit this same mechanism to spread untruths.
Information is faster but your ability to understand it is the same. You get hit with more and more. But you can only consume it one bite at a time. It’s tempting to just believe. It’s tempting to just join. It’s tempting to just accept group think.
Once we sat around campfires and talked. It was easy to say, ‘Hey that’s bullshit.’ It was just your buddies and family. But now, when a story reaches millions, and we see millions commenting, and supporting and liking with the click of a button, it can be hard to stop. Misinformation and disinformation are more and more powerful because of story and new technology that helps us refine and spread the message.
And a rapid spread heard by millions can lend authenticity to stories whether they are true or not.
What was once life saving is now life threatening.
The Double-Edged Sword of Information
The challenge lies in discerning what is true, meaningful, and constructive. Stories that once connected us can now polarize, creating echo chambers, empowering yes-men, and fostering mistrust. We must understand this dynamic - how information spreads, and evolves, and infects - to navigate our way through this mass of information, misinformation, and disinformation. Recognizing the difference between raw facts, truth, and wisdom will helps us reclaim the power of stories as a force for unity and growth.
This takes work. It isn’t popping onto the loudest podcasts and believing everything that is spit out as truth. Yes, it is information but it couldn’t be misinformation. It could be disinformation. It’s worth taking the time to discern the difference.
The question is no longer whether information and story will shape our world—it always has and always will. The question is whether we can survive the mutation and spread of information caused by new technological methods. As the carriers and spreaders of information, we must be intentional about the stories we tell and share, ensuring they reflect truth and build trust rather than destroy it.
If information is a virus, then the vaccine lies in our ability to use it wisely, thoughtfully, fostering networks that strengthen humanity rather than weaken it.
Coming next week - Part 2: The God Complex—Do Information Networks Always Centralize Power?
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