500 Words: On Binary Beliefs
The threat to nuance and the simultaneous rise of computing and polarisation
Everyone’s heard of Tinder but have you heard of Feeld? It’s a next-gen dating app that offers more than 20 sexuality and gender identity options. From ‘pangender’ to ‘trans human’ to ‘two-spirit’, it’s a sign of the times that a wider spectrum of identities are being acknowledged and catered for. What I find curious however, is while the acceptance of non-binary identities is on the increase, so are what I would call ‘binary beliefs’.
Binary beliefs are views of the world that categorise things as black and white, right and wrong. They lead people to an ‘us versus them’ mindset. They manifest in mud-slinging Twitter debates, and sometimes much, much worse. I’d say binary beliefs are driven by a lack of ability or willingness to understand the nuance of any given situation. In the UK there is no shortage of hateful rhetoric being flung from both ends of the political spectrum. Indeed in one episode of the BBC Sounds series The Death of Nuance, host Oliver Burkeman made the humble admission of noticing that he’d begun to think of people with bad opinions as bad people.
In fact, this type of polarisation is now considered a significant threat to humanity. In the World Economic Forum’s 2022 Global Risks Report, ‘social cohesion erosion’ is considered to be one of the biggest global risks over the next ten years.
Without blaming technology entirely for the trend towards polarisation, I find poignancy in their simultaneous rise. Since the 1940s, the advent of binary code has created a computerised world in which a binary system underpins so much of our everyday lives. It doesn’t take too many leaps of logic to assume this has influenced our way of thinking and interacting. Searching on Google Ngram (which charts the use of a word in published texts over time), I found that since 1940 the use of both words ‘binary’ and ‘polarisation’ began to grow simultaneously and exponentially.
Technology has advanced humanity in so many ways, but it’s also created an assumption that all problems can be solved with a technological approach. According to systems theory there are three categories of problems - simple problems, complicated problems and complex problems. Simple problems (like a game of snooker) and complicated problems (like launching a rocket) are both computable. They can be solved and navigated by following a certain set of calculable steps. Whereas complex problems - like the climate collapse or political polarisation, cannot. Messy and interconnected, complex problems don’t have one solution. They require a nuanced approach that takes into account myriad different factors and explores what lies beneath the surface.
Becoming aware of the overly-simplistic assumptions we hold and replacing them with a more nuanced understanding isn’t easy. As Burkeman recognises, nuance is a skill you have to learn - a distinctly adult skill which is the ability to recognise that small differences matter. In an increasingly uncertain world, the need to reach for certitudes is understandable. We cling to our preferred truths, facts and beliefs like a life raft in violent waters. But failing to see and appreciate the whole picture holds us back from making productive progress. Sometimes we need to take inspiration from strange places, and maybe in this instance a woke dating app can remind us that there are never only two options.