The Challenge

 “One way of thinking about science is that it’s a check against the natural human tendency to see patterns that might not be there. It’s a way of knowing when a pattern is real and when it’s a trick of your mind.” — Jason Fagone, The Woman Who Smashed Codes

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One of the fascinating things about acquiring knowledge in any field is that even as you find out something new and useful, it may help shine the light of insight into something else altogether.

Let me explain.

Taking a vacation from the endless news cycle recently, I’ve been exploring the remarkable life and accomplishments of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, arguably the greatest American codebreaker in our history.

As a self-taught cryptanalyst, she deciphered enemy codes during World Wars I and II; in between, she helped the Treasury Department take down gangsters including Al Capone.

Journalist Jason Fagone’s book quoted above is an entertaining and informative biography of this extraordinary woman’s story, but there also is a PBS documentary series,  The Codebreaker, that I highly recommend.

Anyway, the quote above about understanding the difference between patterns, real and imagined, can be applied to thinking about an entirely different matter than cryptology — and that is the abundant conspiracy theories that pollute so much of public life in our era.

From the anti-vaccination pronouncements of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to the ‘Stop the Steal’ nonsense fostered by Donald Trump, a sizable portion of the public buys into these baseless theories that are demonstrably false.

And that not only is the difference between science and “tricks of the mind,” it is precisely what sets real journalism aside from the junk too many consume on Fox News and other purveyors of propaganda.

"So little was known in this country of codes and ciphers when the United States entered World War I, that we ourselves had to be the learners, the workers and the teachers all at one and the same time," Elizebeth said of her work.

That is an accurate summation of the state of the under-informed American public today. So little is known of the facts of our world that we all need to become learners, workers and teachers at the same time. That’s why we desperately need to bring back real, honest journalism to help us do what the codebreakers did — save our democracy from an imminent authoritarian threat.

HEADLINES:

• House devolves into angry round of retribution following McCarthy’s ouster (CNN)

• Vote to oust McCarthy is a warning sign for democracy, scholars say (WP)

• Kevin McCarthy’s ouster as House speaker could cost the GOP its best fundraiser heading into 2024 (AP)

• GOP senators: McCarthy’s collapse will lead to turmoil, shutdown (The Hill)

• House GOP quietly panics over how to escape its self-inflicted mess (Axios)

• Mike Pence's former chief of staff said he thinks Matt Gaetz’s real reason for wanting to be in Congress was less about policy and more about access to underage aides. “To say he came as a fiscal crusader, it’s more likely he came here for the teenage interns on Capitol Hill, to be honest,” Marc Short said. [HuffPost]

• Biden administration waives 26 federal laws to allow border wall construction (ABC)

• September of extreme warmth has climate scientists alarmed (NBC)

• This year is on track to become the hottest on record, with the global mean temperature to date 0.52 degrees Celsius higher than average, the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service said. The global temperature for January-September is also 1.4C higher than the preindustrial average. (Reuters)

• While simulating brain development in a lab, researchers found genes that interfere with key steps in that process and could lead to autism. (WP)

• America’s nonreligious are a growing, diverse phenomenon. They really don’t like organized religion (AP)

• Twitter Is at Death’s Door, One Year After Elon Musk’s Takeover (Rolling Stone)

• Turning to Street Vending, New Migrants Find a Competitive World (NYT)

• Japanese firms are leaving Tokyo for the sticks (Economist)

• 80 Countries Condemn Diktats Against Women In Afghanistan: Report (NDTV)

• Russian missile strike kills 50, Ukraine says, in one of the war's worst attacks on civilians (NBC)

• Why Africans are losing faith in democracy (Economist)

• Anthropic Makes OpenAI Look Cheap (The Information)

• The Defects of Human and Artificial Intelligence (WSJ)

• ChatGPT will ‘help us with extremely hard problems’ in the future, says OpenAI’s chief tech officer (CNBC)

• Generative AI Has Ushered In the Next Phase of Digital Spirituality (Wired)

• Getty Images CEO Craig Peters has a plan to defend photography from AI (Verge)

• “My client Commander Biden asks that you respect his privacy at this time.” — Meatball Jones, Esq., Pit Bull (The Onion)