JANUARY 3, 2025
EMOT
<aside> 🔖 A view on the documentary “Umberto Eco: A Library of the World” from 2018 about Umberto Eco. Eco died in 2016.
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I just had the chance to watch, yesterday, on the second day of the year, a documentary about Umberto Eco clearly made by people who loved and respected him deeply. I already knew a bit about his work, but this provides a clear picture of his beliefs and is truly both timeless and current. Not only was he (and still is, in many ways) a fascinating figure—full of knowledge and well-thought-out ideas about humans, history, books, and stories—but his methods, his love for libraries (especially his own), and the way he built his thought processes are remarkable. He’s truly a philosopher of human life.
The documentary is beautifully made, without excessive flair or special effects. It presents many of his ideas across various realms that feel overwhelmingly relevant today. However, it doesn’t fully address the new AI era. That said, it does explore the Internet age, even though Eco himself was not an "online person." He captures the essence of humanity—how deceit, lies, and misinformation are often more attractive—and illustrates how they shaped human history during the Middle Ages in clear and profound ways.
I checked the documentary in Portugal’s national broadcaster site:
https://www.rtp.pt/play/p14281/e819683/umberto-eco-a-biblioteca-do-mundo
The film examines the history of programmed disinformation and how enticing it has always been for humans—take, for instance, the story of Prester John and others—and how it continues to captivate us. It discusses how, when many people stop believing in God, they start believing in anything, seeking easy explanations and gravitating toward conspiracy theories. "Love is very selective; hatred is generous," Eco says, capturing a key aspect of human nature.
Eco studied lies and fake narratives extensively and approached them with a critical lens. He explored language, symbols, and how they are used to deceive, which was a significant focus of his work. He was particularly fascinated by untrue stories, whether they were deliberate lies with consequences (crafted to deceive) or works of fiction, where we knowingly engage with untruths and find comfort in their deterministic view of the world.
I especially loved his perspective on how to navigate the Internet, where all kinds of knowledge and stories coexist. He believed that too much information is harmful, as it overwhelms and hinders memory. Eco thought that everyone having an opinion and publishing it online was a negative development, primarily because of the "trash" that arises from it. He lamented the lack of editorial oversight. In his view, the role of schools should now be to help children learn how to select and filter information rather than merely providing it, as information is already widely accessible. The ability to discern what is meaningful will determine how informed, knowledgeable, and truthful a person becomes—and spending more time online (especially on social media) certainly won’t help with that.
In this swirl of false identities, misinformation brainlessness, and political backslide, Umberto Eco sees a way forward: “The new core subject for the school syllabus ought to be techniques for selecting information online.” Kids will learn the rest from the internet. It’s a radical idea, but one that might return us to solid ground. — in https://web.archive.org/web/20201109035825/https://www.post-gazette.com/ae/books/2018/01/07/Chronicles-of-a-Liquid-Society-Umberto-Eco-examines-our-mediated-dystopia/stories/201801310006
I would love to hear him talk about the recent AI realm as well. Much more focused and interesting than the social media era, but with different scares and dangers as well.
I often wondered in 2024 how kids (and adults!) will learn and be experienced, if much of the work — including thinking — will be done by AI. We’re already seeing it on LinkedIn and X AI post every day.
One of the coolest libraries that is displayed in the documentary is this one: