Cognitive Inflation: A Formal Analysis of Epistemic Devaluation in Information-Saturated Environments

In information-saturated environments, the exponential growth in data availability paradoxically diminishes the value of knowledge through what we term “cognitive inflation,” the systematic devaluation of epistemic units due to attention scarcity. We develop a formal mathematical model demonstrating that the value of knowledge varies inversely with the volume of information, that cognitive inflation rates equal information growth rates, and that marginal epistemic utility approaches zero as information proliferates exponentially. Empirical validation through two case studies reveals annual cognitive inflation rates of 3.6% in scientific publishing (with institutional gatekeeping) and approximately 11.4% in social media (minimal filtering), corresponding to knowledge devaluations of 51.3% and 79.7%, respectively, over their observation periods. The nearly four-fold difference in inflation rates demonstrates that institutional quality controls significantly moderate, but cannot eliminate, epistemic devaluation. Our analysis addresses three substantive objections regarding historical precedent, attention augmentation, and epistemic relativism, arguing that contemporary cognitive inflation differs qualitatively from previous information challenges and requires institutional reform rather than technological optimization.