Data Rich, INTELLIGENCE Poor (DRIP)

From the removal of datasets, political pressure on key calculations to collapsing survey response rates, the very infrastructure that decision-makers rely upon to understand reality is quietly eroding. Data Darkness represents the upstream collapse of information integrity where the raw material of intelligence becomes unreliable or unavailable before analysis even begins.

What were once settled questions (economic growth rates, casualty figures, demographic trends) are becoming venues for conflict. Epistemic Contestation represents the midstream battlefield where information is transformed into competing claims about reality, each backed by selective evidence and motivated reasoning. The result is not merely disagreement, but the collapse of common ground necessary for rational debate and strategic coordination.

The downstream consequence of degraded data and contested epistemology is blind leaders and increasingly ineffective organizations. Intelligence Poverty is the paradoxical state where, despite unprecedented data volume, the capacity to generate actionable insight collapses in the face of slow, incomplete, contradictory, or actively misleading input. Indicators that once provided early warning now produce false signals or fail entirely. Narrative volatility makes strategic planning impossible as yesterday's consensus evaporates overnight.