Excellent article on Internet systems like Google and Wikipedia. Lots of interesting links to lead down the path of knowledge. Also posted is a link to the counter argument that is thought provoking as well.
Q: Why are people so uncomfortable with Wikipedia? And Google? And, well, that whole blog thing?
A: Because these systems operate on the alien logic of probabilistic statistics, which sacrifices perfection at the microscale for optimization at the macroscale.
Q: Huh?
A: Exactly. Our brains aren’t wired to think in terms of statistics and probability. We want to know whether an encyclopedia entry is right or wrong. We want to know that there’s a wise hand (ideally human) guiding Google’s results. We want to trust what we read.
(Via Unmediated)
Um…
I was told there would be no math on this exam.
This is interesting as hell, actually. Gotta spend some more time pondering it.
I love the nature of the
I love the nature of the question. One of those open ended things you can argue over a few beers.
Is the wisdom of the masses greater than the wisdom of the elite? I’m a big believer in tools like Google and Wikipedia even with their warts. I think the aggregate knowledge of the Internet is massively useful when compared to more "traditional" sources of information (i.e. newspapers, encyclopedias, atlases etc). I can’t even remember how I researched stuff in Elementary and High School but I do rememeber always feeling like I was missing a lot of important information because I was only looking at the two books the school library had on the topic.