What happens to knowledge in a digital world?

There is an endless amount of knowledge available on the internet, but also an endless supply of rubbish. How are we to know whether the sites that search engines locate and place at the top of their list of suggestions are really of any value? And what happens when we rely more and more on knowledge being available on the web, rather than in our own heads? These are some of the questions that have arisen from time to time in debates over the past few decades. Now, two research teams at Lund University have received a grant of over SEK 18 million to tackle these issues over four years. The money will mainly go to fund salaries for all participants. One group is made up of theoretical philosophers who will study knowledge, truth and trust on the internet from a philosophical perspective, while the other group is composed of library and information scientists who will investigate people’s attitudes and behaviours around the internet from a cultural science perspective. “It is gratifying that such a large project grant can go to a pure humanities project. They are usually awarded mostly to engineering and medicine”, says Professor of Theoretical Philosophy Erik J. Olsson.