"Wikipedia launched on January 15, 2001, and by 2006 was being roundly mocked on The Colbert Report as a disinformation train primed for derailment by the meddling demons of human nature - but the "pathological optimist" in Wales refused to concede that his venture, and by extension the entire concept, was doomed. His instincts were, to say the least, solid. The English Wikipedia is now roughly 93 times bigger than Encyclopædia Britannica, the shelf-warping print leviathan that fascinated him as a child."
""The sunny, pro-social view of human nature that inspired Wikipedia may be out of fashion in these cynical times," he writes in his book. "But I will insist that it is correct." Given that Big Think shares his belief that our fragmented current media can offer way more than its default maelstrom of antagonism, we were eager to chat with Wales about our common interests: the virtues of neutrality, the possible transformations of social media, antidotes to toxicity, the potential of AI, and much more."
Jimmy Donal Wales co-founded Wikipedia, launching it on January 15, 2001. Early skepticism and public mockery questioned the project's viability, but Wales maintained a 'pathological optimist' stance and insisted on a pro-social view of human nature. That stance helped Wikipedia grow into a resource roughly 93 times larger than Encyclopædia Britannica. The project's principles emphasize neutrality, trust, and collaborative editing as defenses against misinformation. Those principles are presented as remedies for social media toxicity and fragmented media environments. Wales links innovation to operating under a 'benevolent universe' premise that assumes success is possible and worth pursuing.
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