How To Spot A Thylacine

A Meandering Odyssey Through Post-Truthism, Reality TV, Food Pyramids, UFOlogists, Deep Fakes and Complexity Theory

T̶h̶e̶ ̶m̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶k̶n̶o̶w̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶m̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶l̶i̶s̶e̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶d̶o̶n̶’̶t̶ ̶k̶n̶o̶w̶ ̶-̶ ̶A̶r̶i̶s̶t̶o̶t̶l̶e̶

All I know is that I don’t know nuthin — Operation Ivy

Introduction (We Found a Thylacine)

For a brief 6 hour period last week, I was captivated by rumours that a family of Thylacines (or Tasmanian Tigers) had been spotted in the North-East of Tasmania. If verified, this discovery would have reversed the official classification of the species as extinct, but it didn’t take long for the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery to pour cold water on the whole thing. This episode, though trivial, did cause me to consider the nature of belief and what it would take for me (a naturally incredulous person) to be swept up in a conspiracy theory. For years now (usually in response to an apparently existential event like Brexit or the election of Donald Trump), we have heard those in the “sensible centre” lament the death of objective truth, and while it does appear that facts are increasingly up for grabs in our polarised world, this trend did not materialise in a vacuum, nor can it be explained away as “stupidity”. This phenomenon has…