Can You Trust Wikipedia? Co-Founder Larry Sanger on Wikipedia’s Bias and Why He Was Banned

About this episode:

Michael Shermer speaks with Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger shortly after Sanger was permanently banned from editing the site he helped create.

Sanger tells the story of Wikipedia’s founding, how its ideal of open collaboration hardened into a system dominated by a relatively small group of powerful editors, and why he believes its rules on sourcing and “consensus” now produce political and religious bias.

In the second half of the conversation, Shermer and Sanger shift gears completely and discuss whether religious faith can be rational, the philosophical case for God, the resurrection, the Trinity, repentance and salvation, and whether a future superintelligent AI could become indistinguishable from God.