In 2002, Peter Gabriel released the album Up, in my opinion one of his most powerful and deep works. Among tracks of this album, Signal to Noise song to me always was like a cornerstone of this masterpiece. Like the whole album leads to this song, then the song leads to dramatic culmination leaving you with mix of emotions, feelings, thoughts.

Sometimes artists seem to touch something much deeper than the present moment and create something prophetic. Signal to Noise is one of those artworks. Gabriel wrote this song long before social media and bot networks were used by states and organizations to manipulate public perception and shape narratives. Long before the constant flood of opinions, information, misinformation, and outrage blurred the boundaries between truth and noise.

It speaks about something engineers know well: how difficult it can be to distinguish a meaningful signal from overwhelming noise – signal-to-noise ratio. The stronger the signal relative to the noise, the easier it is to understand what matters. And this is why seems the question it raises feels even more relevant today than ever.

What Is Truth?

Yuval Harari tell abou truth in three different categories. First one is subjective truth, what an individual believes to be true. Second is objective truth – truths independent of human belief, like the laws of physics or mathematics. And the last one is intersubjective truth – shared beliefes that exist because large groups of people agreed abot in them together. Like money, laws, religions, or corporations. They are not physical laws of nature, but powerful social agreements that shape how the world works.

In many ways, our entire civilization operates on such shared beliefs. We obey laws because we believe in the legitimacy of the state. We exchange goods and services, live and die for colorful pieces of paper or digital numbers because we collectively agree that they represent value. Our behavior is shaped not just by facts, but by the stories we believe together.

And this brings us back to the question: what is truth?

Gandhi and the Moral Nature of Truth

Mahatma Gandhi had a radical answer. He famously said: Truth is God.

For Gandhi, truth existed independently of human perception, much like the laws of physics. People might fail to see it or misunderstand it, but it was still there. The purpose of life, he believed, was to search for that truth through honesty with oneself and moral discipline. Then Gandhi added another literally revolutionary idea: truth requires nonviolence.

According to him, genuine truth should persuade through conscience and reason. When someone uses force to impose what they claim is truth, the result is not understanding but acceptation through fear, which breaks the core idea of truth. The fear does not produce truth. It produces obedience. Even when someone starts with the intention of defending truth, the use of force corrupts that intention. Motivation gradually transforms. What begins as a search for truth can turn into revenge, hatred, or cruelty. In that process, truth itself disappears.

History offers many examples. Revolutions often begin with noble ideals but descend into violence. Eventually one tyrant replaces another.

Violence, Gandhi believed, does not reveal truth. It creates new forms of lie.

The Test of Truth

Gandhi proposed a kind of personal test for truth.

If you truly believe in something, you should be ready to suffer for it. To endure hardship. Even to go to prison for it if necessary. Not because suffering proves you are right, but because genuine commitment to truth requires moral courage.

It demands something from you.

Truth in Today’s World

Looking at what is happening around the world today, it is difficult not to wonder whether there is still place for the kind of truth Gandhi spoke about.

We live in a time of unprecedented information abundance. Yet clarity often feels harder to find than ever before. Signals are buried under endless layers of noise.

That is why Signal to Noise feels almost prophetic today. With these thoughts in mind, I invite you to listen to Signal to Noise. Turn up the volume. Let the dramatic voice of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan wash over you. And as the music builds, think about the world we live in now – and how difficult, and how necessary, it has become to recognize the signal within the noise.