It's the science fiction world that I find most interesting…
It's the science fiction world that I find most interesting in Neal Stephenson's "The Fall". He describes a future where the truth in relative and society is split by beliefs in different "truths".
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One group believes that the town of Moab (in the US) was destroyed by a nuclear bomb, as evidenced by a media campaign on social media, complete with scenes of devastation and injuries. Except the town is still there and sleepy as ever.
These beliefs reach into government, the DMV refuses to issue license plates to people from the town because they must be lieing. It's fascinating. Are we already most of the way towards this kind of future?
I'm a computer engineer, I know my stuff and I can tell when someone is posting bullshit in that topic. And there's so much of it, and some of it would really sound quite plausible, were it not for my expertise in this area.
So what about all the other stuff? The stuff where I'm not an expert. Economics? Law? Yes, it sounds plausible what they are saying but so did some of the other stuff that I know is complete rubbish.
Is reputation becoming increasingly important? Can I use reputation as a guide for topics in which I'm not an expert and have no inclination, or time, to become an expert?
It becomes less important as soon as we start to truthfully evaluate opinions through bitcoin. I suspect that charlatans will be unprofitable.