Okay, time for detail.
You're working off the assumption that Resonance fact-checks like a human. It's a repository of data - see the Great Library. It takes it all in. Really, considering all the lies that Megas front already, you're assuming too much of 'independent' studies - how many have to be corp-funded?
Realistically, Megas all have the power, but not the knowledge, to influence Resonance. They may even do it without knowing that they're causing this reaction.
There are limits to all things, but even finding those limits provides a power of its own - Mages can't actually 'vanish' an entire country, because they can't use that much Mana at once. Or, Mages can't work together past a certain threshold, unless they're all part of the same Tradition. Then, we can create our own Mana Storms. Or, we can cause our own Awakenings. Or, no, that isn't possible, but we now understand the moving forces behind those things better, so we can be on the lookout for any new emerging Metatypes.
By the way, I just realized that we're probably scaring off anyone who would care to comment, with our long-winded posts and the exclusive back-and-forth. Shoulda done PMs, I think. Ooops.
That assumption is a core element of the theory - if Resonance is a force of knowledge, it is per definition about more than simply data points that might be false. The discursive process (the creation or discovery of knowledge) isn't about simply creating data, it's about trying to get truth out of that data. Separating noise from signal, coding responses to determine and correlate actual meaning, and a number of other things are vital parts of this process that has built most of the body of human knowledge. And the Resonance has knowledge of these processes. This theory holds that the Resonance is not simply a database; it may not be sapient, but it is certainly active. The Archive is, in essence, a massive database, but the Archive is only an element of the Resonance and not remotely the entirety. And it's certainly worth noting that all computer technology, at its core, boils down to a series of true-false values, aka binary; I should think it no coincidence that the Resonance could latch itself onto something of that nature and yet not other forms of the representation of information (after all, the Archive goes back to the beginning of computing and not, say, the printing of the Gutenburg Bible).
As for the megas, as I said, they could potentially nudge the Resonance; the self-correcting nature of something like this prevents them from truly steering it. Actual control is certainly beyond them - one would have to utterly control all creation or discovery of knowledge. Horizon would probably understand this best, because the Consensus shares some similar properties - short of full on mind control of pretty much the whole company, you can't control the Consensus. Steering the Consensus isn't a real possibility as you'd have to be the sole influence upon all of Horizon. But nudging it is not only possible, but canon - see Twilight Horizon.
Knowing in full the limits of Magic and Resonance would be a powerful thing indeed, though, for so long as those limits remain the same.
I'd actually reverse that - data cannot, by definition, be false; it is either factual or else it is not data. Knowledge, on the other hand, is subjective.
A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.
'Knowledge' is part data/fact, but also part imagination - what theory fits the data/fact. We 'know' how gravity works, because it's the theory that best fits our current data - but unless you are literally omniscient, the data you possess is incomplete, even at the best of times.
I disagree with your definitions. Data can be false, and in fact falsified. If someone entered false inventory values into a system, for example, those false values would still be data. I've certainly never met anyone or read any work in the field of computer science claiming data must be true, nor in science more generally - and that is in large part my lens here. In fact, ensuring the validity (aka, truth) of your data is an incredibly important part of the scientific method.
Knowledge, on the other hand, is
not subjective. If it is false, it is not knowledge - no matter how many people think it is, and no matter how certain they are. And go ask a physicist if we "know" how gravity works. We don't. We know it does, but we only have ideas as to how (there's actually a comic floating around out there where a physicist hears a science advocate say that we understand evolution as well as we understand gravity, which prompts the physicist to say something along the lines of "Wait, is she saying we don't understand evolution?!"). It is possible to falsely believe we know something, but that means we do not have actual knowledge.
Regardless of definition, part of the point is that the truth value is a big part of the difference between Resonance and Dissonance.
However, I'd argue there's a difference between actually knowing something and believing you know something. And per this definition, would Resonance not be the most complete set of valid data that exists?
Still phone posting, so apologies for lack of detail.
You keep on insisting that Resonance actually can differentiate right from wrong. Data is data. It just is. If a few thousand, or million, pages, insist that a groundbreaking new theory hammers away gravity as a theory only Awakened have the power to disbelieve, then according to the Matrix, Mages should float. This, innately, would mean that Technomancers would be 'lighter' in the matrix, and unbound by coding specifications towards gravity.
If Resonance is 'alive', it's likely Xenosapient, and incomprehensible to humans. I doubt that, given the immense and conflicting data it has on the world, it would have an accurate view of anything, really. It's safer if it isn't alive. If it isn't alive, then it can be influenced and used. And we all know that Horizon would be all over that shit in a heartbeat.
Ouroboros, you seem to be on the same page as I am. But, following your train of thought with a stray idea...If the Matrix operated on Knowledge, that'd imply that A.I.s were...Children, of the Matrix? In a literal sense. Deus being one of the oldest, and most influenced by its daddy. That there are so many differing AI indicates either a constantly shifting nature within the Matrix, or an enormous personality that is simply beyond mortal comprehension entirely - truly xenosapient.
Not right and wrong, true and false. And as I said before, the fallacy inherent to the Appeal to Popularity (that is, the ludicrous notion that more people believing something makes it more true) would not influence a force of knowledge - a force of belief, certainly, but not a force of knowledge. Thus, a whole bunch of people saying proposition X is true wouldn't move it, but actual evidence suggesting the truth of the same proposition could.
And the Matrix isn't the Resonance - the Resonance influences the Matrix, but is a distinct separate thing. One not "alive", per se, but at the same time not inert/inactive/etc. I'm at a loss to find a word that encapsulates such a thing, really. But it wouldn't have a "view". It would have knowledge. A view is subjective, and being subjective seems like it would be outside such a thing - both beyond it yet beneath it.
And as for Deus... How is he more influenced by the Matrix than Mirage/Maegara, exactly?
Magic isn't shaped by belief. It is shaped by thoughts. This is a small, but crucial, difference.
Beliefs are passive. They are just there. Once taken in, the conscious mind doesn't work with them too much. Very little mental energy is expended unless the believer actively examines her/his beliefs. But then, this isn't believing, this is thinking.
Thoughts are active. They are mental energy shaped and directed by the conscious mind. Thinking is actually very, very energy intensive and draining to the thinker (it's not much, but go ahead and do some higher math, physics, and philosophy/logic problems for a few hours and tell me it ISN'T draining).
It is this moving around and manipulating of mental energies that shapes the magical energies that exist just adjacent to the physical plane within the astral plane. In my previous example, shaping magical energy is like doing all those math, physics, and philosophy/logic problems for a few hours within the span of a second or two. THAT is what drain is.
As for fading, I would equate the effort required within the time required to something similar to magic working. I think there are similarities beyond just using a similar system to register and record drain/fading at work here. I think the devs did this intentionally.
EDIT: Also, magic doesn't pick right and wrong in Shadowrun. It doesn't work that way. It's just astral energy moving from the astral plane to the physical plane. It doesn't think, choose, or believe. Any more than rain falling from the sky thinks, chooses, or believes where it will fall.
I should begin by pointing out that you have wonderfully articulated the viewpoint of a hermetic mage; however, I must note that your theory has limited explanatory merit - specifically, it explains Logic Drain Traditions only (well, maybe Intuition, but certainly not Charisma).
And beliefs are not passive. Quite the opposite. Beliefs have an extremely powerful active influence upon thought (look up motivated cognition some time, it's a good example of this; so is cognitive dissonance in its own way). The conscious mind doesn't work very much on beliefs, but beliefs work a great deal upon the conscious mind. Though believe me, anyone who's done any serious marathon coding sessions is well aware that mental effort can be tiring (and there's a good deal of psychology to back that point up).
The similarities of Drain and Fading have to be intentional, but so too do their differences - most notably, you can magically Heal Fading. They are certainly similar, but they are clearly not the same thing.
And I never ascribed to magic the ability to select right and wrong, nor the ability to choose, think, or believe. In fact, that lack seems to me to be part of what explains the differences between the natures of the Toxic/Twisted and the Dissonant (note, for example, the effect of dead zones upon the Dissonant).
