PhD defence Inte Gloerich: Is Blockchain a Truth Machine?

Lina Theodorou for Bad Shibe (Torque and Furtherfield, 2017)

On Monday 3 February 2025, Inte Gloerich will defend her PhD dissertation ‘Reimagining the Truth Machine: Blockchain Imaginaries Between the Rational and the More-than-Rational’. In her thesis, Gloerich explores the widespread idea of blockchain as a ‘truth machine.’

Blockchain and the post-truth era

Blockchain is a technology that stores data in digital ‘blocks’, linked together in a kind of chain. This chain has no central authority but is managed by a network of users. If someone wants to change any data, another user from the network must first grant permission. Who can give this permission is determined by a random, algorithmic ‘lottery’. As a result, blockchain is seen as secure, transparent, and nearly impossible to tamper with.

Some believe that blockchain can function as a ‘truth machine’, offering a potential solution to the challenges of today’s post-truth era. By creating a decentralised and algorithmic system, it is thought to enable logical, universal, and objective truths, free from human bias.

However, any idea of ‘truth’ must be based on assumptions and worldviews, and Gloerich investigated which assumptions underlie the blockchain culture.

Entrusting ‘truth’ to algorithmic processes

In her dissertation, Gloerich delves into blockchain culture through four case studies. She finds a complex interplay between rationalism and diverse forms of belief, which she calls the ‘more-than-rational’, such as the belief that ‘truth machine’-based data offers an allseeing, godly view on the world.

Gloerich highlights the risks of relying on algorithmic processes to define ‘truth’. To help make future visions of complex technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence more open and inclusive, Gloerich also discusses how artistic and activist methods can play a role in shaping these discussions.

For guests who attend her PhD defence at Utrecht University Hall, Gloerich will hold a layman’s talk from 12:00. Gloerich’s PhD was supervised by Professor Maaike Bleeker and Professor Jan Broersen and co-supervised by Dr Martin Zeilinger. A livestream of the event will be found here.