babybird wrote:
I wonder what percentage of the world's knowledge is absolutely useless
Are we defining useful to be practical application? Well, that would be dependent on the person. Does it have to be useful for the person, specifically? I mean, sometimes we learn things in order to relate to someone else. Is that a use? Human connection? Or is it only a use if someone practically applies it in their own life? Is
relating to someone a practical application?
Wait. Am I even approaching the question correctly? I'm approaching it as what percentage is useful to an
individual. Useful to
human society as a whole? Well, for what? To progress as a species?
I'm overthinking this. You've broken me.

Then there's the fact that our collective knowledge is limited and often biased by the victors of history. What we know now isn't the complete picture and never will be. Especially considering book burnings and political limiting of information. However, it will definitely change as we gain new information. I mean, there was a show I used to watch as a kid that had episodes edited and a couple removed due to historical inaccuracy. By the time we've left school, a good portion of the information we have learnt is outdated.
Also, with blatantly wrong AI overviews and deepfakes out there...well, I don't want to sound like I've got a tinfoil hat on, but figuring out what's real and true (aka the world's knowledge) that's tricky to discern. I think we've rather muddied that one up.
Apparently if you make up a fake saying then the AI overview will assume it's a real saying and hallucinate a meaning, then it'll tell you when it was created and claim that it's real. I don't know if they've patched that but that's the problem. It's
generative. Not a fact checker. It'll make it real even if it isn't.
Frankly I don't get the point. Wasn't the whole idea that we could search stuff to find out information? Why do we have a hallucinating version of that talking paperclip?
I see you're trying to make a Google search, want me to give you a summary that you didn't ask for?
Interestingly, if I Google Clippy in Incognito it provides an AI overview. Whereas, if I make the same search in a standard search it doesn't have the overview. Maybe Google knows I have beef with their overviews.
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