The holidays are fast approaching and you know what that means: pumpkin spice everything, seasonal cheer, and family gatherings — all while avoiding your QAnon adherent relatives like the plague. But when you do eventually get cornered by them, come prepared. 

In his latest book, How to Talk to a Science Denier, author Lee McIntyre examines the phenomenon of denialism, exploring the conspiracy theories that drive it, and explains how you can most effectively address your relatives' misplaced concerns over everything from mRNA vaccines to why the Earth isn't actually flat.

The MIT Press

How to Talk to a Science Denier: Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Other Who Defy Reason, by Lee McIntyre, published by The MIT Press.

Belief in conspiracy theories is one of the most toxic forms of human reasoning. This is not to say that real conspiracies do not exist. Watergate, the tobacco companies’ collusion to obfuscate the link between cigarette smoking and cancer, and the George W. Bush–era NSA program to secretly spy on civilian Internet users are all examples of real-life conspiracies, which were discovered through evidence and exposed after exhaustive investigation.

By contrast, what makes conspiracy theory reasoning so odious is that whether or not there is any evidence, the theory is asserted as true, which puts it beyond all reach of being tested or refuted by scientists and other debunkers. The distinction, therefore, should be between actual conspiracies (for which there should be some evidence) and conspiracy theories (which customarily have no credible evidence). We might define a conspiracy theory as an “explanation that makes reference to hidden, malevolent forces seeking to advance some nefarious aim.” Crucially, we need to add that these tend to be “highly speculative [and] based on no evidence. They are pure conjecture, without any basis in reality.”

When we talk about the danger of conspiracy theories for scientific reasoning, our focus should therefore be on their nonempirical nature, which means that they are not even capable of being tested in the first place. What is wrong with conspiracy theories is not normally that they have already been refuted (though many have), but that thousands of gullible people will continue to believe them even when they have been debunked.

If you scratch a science denier, chances are you’ll find a conspiracy theorist. Sadly, conspiracy theories seem to be quite common in the general population as well. In a recent study by Eric Oliver and Thomas Wood they found that 50 percent of Americans believed in at least one conspiracy theory.

This included the 9/11 truther and Obama birther conspiracies, but also the idea that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is deliberately withholding a cure for cancer, and that the Federal Reserve intentionally orchestrated the 2008 recession. (Notably, the JFK assassination conspiracy was so widely held that it was excluded from the study.)

Other common conspiracy theories — which run the range of popularity and outlandishness — are that “chemtrails” left by planes are part of a secret government mind-control spraying program, that the school shootings at Sandy Hook and Parkland were “false flag” operations, that the government is covering up the truth about UFOs, and of course the more “science-related” ones that the Earth is flat, that global warming is a hoax, that some corporations are intentionally creating toxic GMOs, and that COVID-19 is caused by 5G cell phone towers.

In its most basic form, a conspiracy theory is a non-evidentially justified belief that some tremendously unlikely thing is nonetheless true, but we just don’t realize it because there is a coordinated campaign run by powerful people to cover it up. Some have contended that conspiracy theories are especially prevalent in times of great societal upheaval. And, of course, this explains why conspiracy theories are not unique to modern times. As far back as the great fire of Rome in 64 AD, we saw conspiracy theories at work, when the citizens of Rome became suspicious over a weeklong blaze that consumed almost the entire city — while the emperor Nero was conveniently out of town. Rumors began to spread that Nero had started it in order to rebuild the city in his own design. While there was no evidence that this was true (nor for the legend that Nero sang while the city burned), Nero was apparently so upset by the accusation that he started his own conspiracy theory that it was in fact the Christians who were responsible, which led to the prevalence of burning them alive.

Here one understands immediately why conspiracy theories are anathema to scientific reasoning. In science, we test our beliefs against reality by looking for disconfirming evidence. If we find only evidence that fits our theory, then it might be true. But if we find any evidence that disconfirms our theory, it must be ruled out. With conspiracy theories, however, they don’t change their views even in the face of disconfirming evidence (nor do they seem to require much evidence, beyond gut instinct, that their views are true in the first place). Instead, conspiracy theorists tend to use the conspiracy itself as a way to explain any lack of evidence (because the clever conspirators must be hiding it) or the presence of evidence that disconfirms it (because the shills must be faking it). Thus, lack of evidence in favor of a conspiracy theory is in part explained by the conspiracy itself, which means that its adherents can count both evidence and lack of evidence in their favor.

Virtually all conspiracy theorists are what I call “cafeteria skeptics.” Although they profess to uphold the highest standards of reasoning, they do so inconsistently. Conspiracy theorists are famous for their double standard of evidence: they insist on an absurd standard of proof when it concerns something they do not want to believe, while accepting with scant to nonexistent evidence whatever they do want to believe. We have already seen the weakness of this type of selective reasoning with cherry-picking evidence. Add to this a predilection for the kind of paranoid suspicion that underlies most conspiracy-minded thinking, and we face an almost impenetrable wall of doubt. When a conspiracy theorist indulges their suspicions about the alleged dangers of vaccines, chemtrails, or fluoride — but then takes any contrary or debunking information as itself proof of a cover-up — they lock themselves in a hermetically sealed box of doubt that no amount of facts could ever get them out of. For all of their protests of skepticism, most conspiracy theorists are in fact quite gullible.

Belief in the flatness of the Earth is a great example. Time and again at FEIC 2018, I heard presenters say that any scientific evidence in favor of the curvature of the Earth had been faked. “There was no Moon landing; it happened on a Hollywood set.” “All the airline pilots and astronauts are in on the hoax.” “Those pictures from space are Photoshopped.” Not only did disconfirming evidence of these claims not cause the Flat Earthers to give up their beliefs, it was used as more evidence for the conspiracy! And of course to claim that the devil is behind the whole cover-up about Flat Earth could there be a bigger conspiracy theory? Indeed, most Flat Earthers would admit that themselves. A similar chain of reasoning is often used in climate change denial. President Trump has long held that global warming is a “Chinese hoax” meant to undermine the competitiveness of American manufacturing.

Others have contended that climate scientists are fudging the data or that they are biased because they are profiting from the money and attention being paid to their work. Some would argue that the plot is even more nefarious — that climate change is being used as a ruse to justify more government regulation or takeover of the world economy. Whatever evidence is presented to debunk these claims is explained as part of a conspiracy: it was faked, biased, or at least incomplete, and the real truth is being covered up. No amount of evidence can ever convince a hardcore science denier because they distrust the people who are gathering the evidence. So what is the explanation? Why do some people (like science deniers) engage in conspiracy theory thinking while others do not?

Various psychological theories have been offered, involving factors such as inflated self-confidence, narcissism, or low self-esteem. A more popular consensus seems to be that conspiracy theories are a coping mechanism that some people use to deal with feelings of anxiety and loss of control in the face of large, upsetting events. The human brain does not like random events, because we cannot learn from and therefore cannot plan for them. When we feel helpless (due to lack of understanding, the scale of an event, its personal impact on us, or our social position), we may feel drawn to explanations that identify an enemy we can confront. This is not a rational process, and researchers who have studied conspiracy theories note that those who tend to “go with their gut” are the most likely to indulge in conspiracy-based thinking. This is why ignorance is highly correlated with belief in conspiracy theories. When we are less able to understand something on the basis of our analytical faculties, we may feel more threatened by it.

There is also the fact that many are attracted to the idea of “hidden knowledge,” because it serves their ego to think that they are one of the few people to understand something that others don’t know. In one of the most fascinating studies of conspiracy-based thinking, Roland Imhoff invented a fictitious conspiracy theory, then measured how many subjects would believe it, depending on the epistemological context within which it was presented. Imhoff’s conspiracy was a doozy: he claimed that there was a German manufacturer of smoke alarms that emitted high-pitched sounds that made people feel nauseous and depressed. He alleged that the manufacturer knew about the problem but refused to fix it. When subjects thought that this was secret knowledge, they were much more likely to believe it. When Imhoff presented it as common knowledge, people were less likely to think that it was true.

One can’t help here but think of the six hundred cognoscenti in that ballroom in Denver. Out of six billion people on the planet, they were the self-appointed elite of the elite: the few who knew the “truth” about the flatness of the Earth and were now called upon to wake the others.

What is the harm from conspiracy theories? Some may seem benign, but note that the most likely factor in predicting belief in a conspiracy theory is belief in another one. And not all of those will be harmless. What about the anti-vaxxer who thinks that there is a government cover-

up of the data on thimerosal, whose child gives another measles? Or the belief that anthropogenic (human- caused) climate change is just a hoax, so our leaders in government feel justified in delay? As the clock ticks on averting disaster, the human consequences of the latter may end up being incalculable.

If you were hoping the long running Donald Trump / Twitter saga was over, I have bad news. The former president has filed suit in Florida seeking a preliminary injunction of the ban, while he works towards having his account permanently reinstated. Trump is arguing, as expected, that the ban violates his First Amendment rights, but also Florida's new social media law signed by Governor Ron DeSantis earlier this year — though courts have stopped the law from taking effect on the grounds that it likely violates free speech laws. 

The suit makes many predictable arguments that Twitter is “a major avenue of public discourse" and that it "exercises a degree of power and control over political discourse in this country that is immeasurable, historically unprecedented, and profoundly dangerous to open democratic debate.” 

This story is developing...

Bad actors were able to infiltrate the accounts of and steal cryptocurrency from around 6,000 Coinbase customers by exploiting a multi-factor authentication flaw, according to Bleeping Computer. The cryptocurrency exchange told the publication that its security team observed a large-scale phishing campaign targeting its users between April and early May 2021. Some users may have fallen victim to the malicious emails, giving hackers access to their usernames and passwords. Worse, even those who had multi-factor authentication switched on were compromised because of a flaw in the exchange's system.

In the notification [PDF] it sent to affected customers, Coinbase said the bad actors took advantage of a vulnerability in its SMS Account Recovery process. That allowed the hackers to receive the two-factor token that was supposed to be sent via text to the account owner's phone number. 

Coinbase recommends using two-factor with a security key on its website, followed by an authenticator app. It lists SMS authentication as a last resort, advising users to lock their mobile accounts to protect themselves from SIM swap scams or phone port frauds. Back in August, Coinbase also notified 125,000 users that their two-factor settings had changed, but the exchange said back then that the notification was sent by mistake and wasn't the result of a hack.

In its letter to customers, Coinbase said it patched up its SMS Account Recovery protocols as soon as it learned about the issue. It's also reimbursing everyone who's lost cryptocurrency from the event. Those who were affected by the hack may want to make sure all their other accounts are secure, though, since it also exposed their names, addresses and other sensitive information when their accounts were infiltrated.

The Biden administration plans to bring together 30 countries later this month to discuss the threat ransomware attacks pose to global economic and national security. Per CNN, the virtual meeting is part of what the president says will become an ongoing multilateral initiative to tackle the cybersecurity problem.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told the network the goal of the meeting is "to accelerate our cooperation in combatting cybercrime, improving law enforcement collaboration, stemming the illicit use of cryptocurrency, and engaging on these issues diplomatically."

The alliance marks the latest effort by the Biden administration to tackle the issue of ransomware following a year in which one such attack on the Colonial Pipeline led to gas shortages across parts of the US. In the aftermath of the incident, the president signed an executive order that called for greater cooperation and information sharing between disparate federal agencies. More recently, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the SUEX cryptocurrency exchange for allegedly facilitating several attacks.

As promised earlier in the year, Samsung is removing ads from its first-party mobile apps. As of today, you won’t see the company advertise things to you in Samsung Pay, Weather, Theme and Health. Reports of the change first started to filter out on Samsung’s Community Forum in South Korea, with 9to5Google and TizenHelp later spotting the posts. Engadget saw the change go through when we updated the software on one of our Galaxy Flip 3 review units.   

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Almost universally across the apps, you won’t see banner ads anymore. The only exception to this rule is Samsung Pay where there’s a section of the main interface dedicated to special offers, but that makes sense in the context of the software. If you still see ads on your Samsung phone, it looks like you can push through the update by using the force stop functionality in Android to manually restart the Pay, Weather, Health and Theme apps.

The Google graveyard is getting more crowded. After announcing the Plex mobile-first bank accounts in November last year with Citibank and a few other financial institutions, Google is pulling back from the product. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company is "abandoning plans to pitch bank accounts to its users." 

A Google spokesperson told Engadget that it's "updating our approach to focus primarily on delivering digital enablement for banks and other financial services providers rather than us serving as the provider of these services."

Plex was initially positioned as an easy mobile-first way to open bank accounts, with Google providing the technology and app design and banks and credit providers backing the finances. It sounded more like a way to help institutions that didn't yet have a modern, competent app to team up with Google on one, which might be why major names like Bank of America and Capital One, who already had existing apps, weren't on the list of partners.

According to the Journal, a Citibank spokesperson said it plans to recommend other accounts to people who had already signed up for the Plex waiting list. The publication reports that the waiting list numbered about 400,000 people, and that the pandemic had thrown plans off schedule. The Journal also noted that "As late as this week, several banks were under the impression that the project would still move forward."

Though the Plex branding is going away, Google does appear to want to stick around in the financial services business. The spokesperson said that "We strongly believe that this is the best way for Google to help consumers gain better access to financial services and to help the financial services ecosystem connect more deeply with their customers in a digital environment.”  

It may not a complete abandonment, but Plex joins a long list of other Google products that were cancelled or discontinued, like the Home Max speaker, Clips camera, Google+ and more.

You have to look past the grille of the iX. Just accept it for what it is or ignore it all together because that polarizing piece of design that actually doesn’t feed a radiator like it does the gas-powered X5. Instead it has a few sensors and it’s really a design feature. But look past it because behind it is BMW’s fifth-generation EV system, which is actually great.

While the inside of the iX carries the torch of the now-discontinued i3, the limitations of that vehicle, namely its short range, are gone. The iX starting at $83,200 has a targeted range of about 300 miles. Beyond the design, it handles and drives like a next-generation EV with a plethora of features that’ll make first adopters and those migrated from the gas-powered BMWs happy. We had a chance to drive it around Germany; watch the video above for our thoughts.

Meet the Toyota C+walk. It’s a new three-wheeled electric scooter from the Japanese automaker designed to help people with limited mobility. While it shares some visual characteristics with battery electric vehicles like the Bird Three and Segway PT, its closest antecedent is the Concept-i Walk Toyota showed off back in 2017.

Toyota

A removable lithium-ion battery allows the C+walk to travel about eight and a half miles on a single charge, after which it needs some two hours to recharge from zero to full. It can travel at a maximum speed of just over six miles per hour, though it’s possible to throttle it down to one mile per hour. Some of the more nifty features of the C+walk include an obstacle avoidance system. It will beep when it detects something on your path and slow down the vehicle if a collision is imminent.

Initially, the automaker envisions the scooter helping elderly workers travel across large facilities like warehouses, factories and airport terminals. In the future, the company hopes the Japanese government will certify the C+walk for use on public roads. Toyota dealers in Japan will start selling and leasing the scooter at the start of next month. It will start at ¥341,000, or just under $3,100 with the current exchange rate.

If you've had your iPhone set up to unlock with your Apple Watch and recently upgraded to an iPhone 13, a software bug may have prevented you from continuing to use this. Thankfully, a fix is here and once you install it, you shouldn't have to resort to Face ID (or worse, typing in your passcode) anymore. The latest iOS 15 update (iOS 15.0.1) is here and according to the changelog, it brings bug fixes "including an issue where some users could not unlock iPhone 13 models with Apple Watch."

Apple added the unlock with Watch feature in watchOS 7.4 earlier this year to make it easier to get into your iPhone while you're out and masked up. This feature later got broken with a subsequent iOS and update and required another over-the-air package to fix. Apple recently acknowledged that this was also not working on some iPhone 13 models, and said it would roll out a solution soon. The iPhone 13 only started being available on September 24th, so this issue was at least caught early. Though it's nice that the update is here days later, it's interesting to see the trouble the company has had with this feature in the last few months. 

Google Chrome is experimenting with a couple of features that could help you continue research into a topic and compare the page you're on with other search results. The Journeys feature could give you more ways to keep track of what you look up.

The tool automatically collates pages and information related to the same topic, which would save you from looking through your history manually or creating a bookmarks folder with all of those sites. Chrome will also provide search suggestions to bolster your research. 

The groups are saved locally and aren't synced with your Google account, so you can't access them across devices. This may change in the future, though. You can switch off the feature at any time and clear journey-specific browsing history.

Journeys could come in useful if you spend several weeks planning a trip or trying to figure out what car to buy. The feature is only available in the Chrome Canary build on desktop for now. You can find your Journeys within the history section (or enter chrome://history/journeys on the address bar).

In addition, Google is testing a side panel for search. When you click a link after searching for something, a G icon will appear next to the Chrome address bar. If you click that, you'll see other results for that search in a side panel. That will let you compare the page you're on with other results without having to juggle multiple tabs or move back and forth between pages.

For the time being, this feature is being tested in the Chrome OS Dev channel with Google Search. If Google ends up rolling out the tool more broadly, it plans to bring the side panel to more platforms and add support for other default search engines.

Those aren't the only updates Google has planned for Chrome in the near future. Google Lens is coming to the browser in the coming months.