Research frontier CAL-07

Less information noise

Also relevant to: Communication, Education

Geneva in 2061

In 2061, people in Geneva choose the information they let into their minds as carefully as the food on their plates. Children learn early how to find, check and limit information. Platforms reward quality rather than quantity: a few excellent videos or articles count for more than hundreds of repetitive ones, and everyone can easily choose how their feed is sorted. People spend less time scrolling and more time thinking, talking, reading and living.

Based on solid scientific research proving their negative health effects, irrelevant negative news was now forbidden in newspapers and magazines. And especially on TV.Grooters, Book 1, Part 16 “2061”

Geneva today

Since 2025, mobile phones are banned at all times in Geneva’s lower secondary schools

The ban covers the whole school grounds of every cycle d’orientation, including lunch breaks, to protect the quality of learning and pupils’ mental health and to encourage social interaction away from screens. A second offence leads to detention with written reflection on the effects of excessive screen use.

Source: State of Geneva, Department of Public Education, press release of 26 June 2025

Since 2023, EU law has required the largest online platforms to offer at least one feed that is not based on profiling. In practice, it is often well hidden: according to a complaint filed in March 2026, YouTube users can only reach it by switching off their entire watch history, through five steps on the web and seven on the mobile app, after which their home page goes blank (EDRi, 2026).

Where it is already done

The Netherlands saw the Amsterdam District Court rule in 2025, in a case brought by the digital rights group Bits of Freedom, that the way Facebook and Instagram hid their non-profiling feeds was a serious infringement of users’ autonomy.
PeerTube an open-source video platform supported by a French non-profit organisation, works without any profiling: users simply sort videos by what was recently added, what is trending or what is most liked, with no nudging towards any option.

How far along

Research frontier Nobody knows yet how to do it. With 35 years ahead and the help of AI, this is where research is needed most.

The path to 2061

Milestones proposed for discussion.

2027Geneva schools teach information hygiene from primary school onwards: how to choose, check and limit the information we consume.
2031Platforms used in Switzerland must offer an easily accessible feed that is not based on profiling, and phone-free zones are common in libraries, cafés and workplaces.
2041Research, helped by AI, has produced ranking methods that reward quality and depth rather than quantity and outrage, and leading platforms use them.
2051Most people consume less but better information, chosen consciously rather than pushed by algorithms.
2061As in Verity’s Geneva, people are calm and well informed, because they choose what they let into their minds.

What moves it

CultureLawTechnologyResearch

Human needs it serves

ClarityMeaningSpaceAutonomyChoiceAutonomyPresenceHonesty

Open questions

How could platforms measure quality rather than quantity, and who should decide what quality means?
What information does each of us truly need, and how can we learn to recognise junk information as easily as junk food?
Should content creators be encouraged to retire outdated content, especially in fields where knowledge evolves quickly?

The author’s view

Less information noise requires two things. The first is individual discipline: to stop mindless scrolling and ask ourselves what information we truly need in our lives. Many people who are very careful about what they put on their plates feed their brains with junk: gossip, negative news, violent films.

The second problem is platforms that reward noise. Many YouTubers post again and again, rehashing the same information until they have hundreds of videos with mostly the same content. Platforms should select for quality instead of quantity: a creator with 30 to 50 quality videos should rank higher than one with 500. Creators themselves should remove older content that is no longer relevant, especially in fields like self-development, where more recent knowledge tends to be more helpful.

Streaming platforms, too, seem geared more towards quantity than quality, and even libraries are not always good at curating quality books. This is a fairly recent phenomenon, and much more research and rethinking is needed.

Do you feel more intelligent (educated), inspired or uplifted after having consumed a certain piece of information? If not, avoid similar content in the future.

Henrik Hillerström

Sources

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