Agnosis (etymology: a-gnosis) is the production of ignorance, false knowledge, or non-knowledge. As populist politicians, fascists, and conspiracy theorists take power in the USA and elsewhere, norms of expertise, credentialing, evidence, and method are being upended. Well developed knowledge institutions, from the Centers for Disease Control to climate and environmental knowledge infrastructures, are being reshaped or even dismantled. But science faces other major issues as well, including AI, an explosion of low-quality publications from “paper mills,” rampant fraud, and ideologically driven science education from such entities as Prager “University." This talk will explore these concerns and – along with you, the audience – consider ways to stanch the bleeding of this all-important mode of knowledge production.
Paul N. Edwards is Director of the Program on Science, Technology & Society and Senior Research Scholar at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. He co-directs the Stanford Existential Risks Initiative and is Professor Emeritus of Information and History at the University of Michigan. He is also member of the External Faculty at the UvA Institute for Advanced Study.
Edwards studies the history, politics, and culture of information infrastructures, especially climate knowledge systems. His books include A Vast Machine and The Closed World, and he serves as academic editor of MIT Press’s Infrastructures series. He was also a Lead Author for the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (2021).
Professor Paul Edwards was awarded the prestigious 2025 Bernal Prize by the Society for Social Studies of Science. The prize recognises his distinguished contributions to the field of Science, Technology, and Society, particularly his groundbreaking research on scientific infrastructures, climate knowledge systems, and the social dimensions of science.