WHAT ARE THE LIMITS OF PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE? Julian Assange and Wikileaks

RLS: Wikileaks

What is Wikileaks? “Whistle-blowing” website Organization publishing submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers Launched in 2006 Had 1.2 million documents in the first year Julian Assange, Australian Internet activist, is its founder, editor-in-chief, and director

Top stories leaked by Wikileaks 1. Apache helicopter attacking Iraqui civilians, including 2 Reuter journalists 2. Guantanomo Bay operating procedures, denying health care for prisoners 3. Details of Church of Scientology 4. s from Climate Research institute 5. Government of Australia’s attempt to create “great firewall of Australia” 6. Trafigura Minton Report about amateur procedures used by oil company in Africa 7. Secret members of British National Party, a right-wing party 8. Personal messages from vicitims of 9/11

Apache helicopter killing civilians

Purpose of Wikileaks WikiLeaks website says their goal is "to bring important news and information to the public... One of our most important activities is to publish original source material alongside our news stories so readers and historians alike can see evidence of the truth."

Knowledge Issues: What is knowledge? Is information the same as knowledge? Who owns knowledge? What is private and public in a cyber age? Should everyone have access to all information?  WHAT ARE THE LIMITS OF PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE?

What is knowledge?

How is knowledge different from information? Knowledge is “act of knowing” Knowledge requires acquiring facts, truths or principles from study, investigation, observation or experience It comes from KNOW, meaning ‘to be able’, and LEDGE which denotes ‘action or practice’ Therefore, knowledge, by defintion, is an active process

Information Information refers to data and raw facts Information is knowledge that is told, communicated, learned or read Information may be unorganized or even unrelated Therefore, information becomes knowledge when it is organized into a body of facts, such as ‘knowledge of chemistry’ Media informs, but does not always provide knowledge

Who owns knowledge? Schools and Universities  Resulting from investigation and research Government  Resulting from census data  Public works projects Media  Media conglomerates manage a huge array of information, choosing to highlight what they consider “newsworthy” Individuals  As a result of experiences, study and research, we acquire knowledge when we have processed information and believe it to be true

Is all knowledge public? History  Historical knowledge is public. It shapes national identity and connects us with our past Science  Scientific knowledge is expanding thanks to the work of previous scientists  Process of falsification (Popper) is a responsibility of all scientists Arts  Art products belong to all cultures and are public property once they are released, hence the existence of museums

Unethical use of knowledge Business  Creative accounting  Enron scandal  Bernard Madoff

A bit of history Spanish Inquisition,  Catholic church persecuted non-Catholics and witches who read books and knew about plants and naturalist medicine English monarchs  Real motives behind their wars and political manouvers were never clear to the general population (Feudalism) Galileo,  Persecuted for his discoveries which proved heliocentric model These historical examples suggest that knowledge and information is often kept secret from the general population due to political motives

A counter-argument Therefore, all knowledge should be public. However, Wikileaks has been questioned for the consequences of sharing leaked documents  Military operations foiled  Personal lives and traumas revealed Wikileaks has also been questioned for the unethical ways of getting the information  Requires individuals to betray organizations they worked for  Is it ethical to hack computers in the interest of ‘free speech’? Despite Assange’s recent claims that Wikileaks is victim of “witch hunts”, his tactics do require close scrutiny

Are there limits to knowledge? There are limits to knowledge in the sense that not everything is known or knowable  Astronomy – expanding universe does not allow us to see beyond the ‘edge’  Mathematics – ‘incompleteness theorem’ – mathematical systems, built on axioms, can’t themselves be proven using arithmetic  Language analogy: ‘This sentence is false’. Appreciating these limits help orient future investigations and challenge current ways of thinking

Conclusion WHAT ARE THE LIMITS OF PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE?  There is a difference between knowledge and information  Developing one’s knowledge requires the individual to learn, process and organize information to make it meaningful  Wikileaks shares all information allowing individuals to generate meaningful knowledge  Their methods have created fear and antagonized governments  Not all information is public and breaking this principle can cause breaches in Ethics  Not everything is known and these limits help us to orient future investigations  Information and knowledge in the 21st Century is increasingly non- paper based requiring insight and careful management