Strategic Ignorance
5 items
From 'Merchants of Doubt' to 'Captors of Regulation' — Reading Big AI's Regulatory Capture through 27 Mechanisms
Birhane et al. (2026, FAccT'26) present a taxonomy of 5 categories and 27 mechanisms of Big AI's regulatory capture. This synthesis integrates that taxonomy into ISVD Agnotology Lab's 7-axis coding framework, tracing how the doubt-manufacturing tactics perfected by tobacco, oil, and pharmaceutical industries have transferred to the AI sector. Drawing on empirical data of 100 articles, 249 cases, and 11 dominant narratives, the article reads the contemporary form of the infrastructure of ignorance production.
The Doubt Manufacturing Industry — The Sixty-Year War of Tobacco and Climate
This case study analyzes sixty years of history in which the tobacco and fossil fuel industries systematically 'manufactured doubt' against scientific consensus. From the fact that the same group of scientists and the same strategic patterns were repeatedly employed, 'doubt manufacturing' is theorized as a foundational mechanism of ignorance production.
Why Predatory Business Endures — Structural Analysis of Converting Information Asymmetry into Profit
Real estate, insurance, telecommunications, financial products — this case study analyzes how predatory business models exploit the information-poor through the agnotological concept of 'complexity weaponization.' Why can businesses intentionally complicate information to convert consumers' 'not knowing' into profit? An anatomy of the cross-industry exploitation model that persists across sectors.
The Inhibitory Effect of Strategic Ignorance in EBPM — How 'Pretending Not to Know' Distorts Policy
Applying Linsey McGoey's strategic ignorance theory to Japan's EBPM promotion, this analysis examines the structural mechanisms by which evidence is not reflected in policy despite its existence. It reveals the structure of intentional ignorance behind rhetoric such as 'insufficient data' and 'still too early.'
Research Framework of the Agnotology Lab — An Inductive Coding Framework
From the perspective of agnotology, this note presents an inductive coding framework for multidimensional analysis of the 'production of ignorance.' Moving beyond conventional domain-based classification, a seven-axis tagging system structures research notes and allows cross-disciplinary patterns to emerge from the data.