6 ms·

If you have some opinion about just about anything, you can find support for it, in fact a web of support, which will really test your reasoning skills. Maybe

If you have some opinion about just about anything, you can find support for it, in fact a web of support, which will really test your reasoning skills. Maybe this is a technological problem with a technological solution? This strikes me as being a sort of blindness to the epistemic web-of-supporting-knowledge. What we claim to know is ultimately supported and reinforced by other propositions that are consistent with it. There is a view of reality defined by the proposition that vaccines do more harm than good, and there is a small web of propositions that stand in support of this; but its a very small web and it stands in opposition to far more propositions than are in its web. What if there was some kind of page-rank for ideas we see on the internet? What if it was made obvious, in your web browser or something, that you were viewing information that had a very low epistemic probability based on the amount of supporting information on the web? Maybe we're 10 or 20 years out from whatever technological solution could accomplish this (AI, clever algorithms, ... ?) but I really think that sometimes people just have a hard time seeing or understanding the sheer scale of evidence that is opposed to their flawed beliefs.

H4CK3RM4N 10y ago
Google is trying that with their 'single answer' box(I forgot the name). Sadly, that tends to lead to worse misconceptions then before. There are a few examples in: https://youtu.be/hgEPHIaScck https://youtu.be/hgEPHIaScck
krapp 10y ago
> I really think that sometimes people just have a hard time seeing or understanding the sheer scale of evidence that is opposed to their flawed beliefs. No, they would discount the credibility of that evidence before entertaining the possibility that they might be wrong. If you created a page rank for ideas, to prove to them how unlikely their beliefs were to be true, such people would dismiss the attempt as propaganda. Just look at how often various points of view on HN (which one would expect to self-select for rational, scientifically minded thinkers) are derided as fabrications, "fake news", the work of shills, disinformation, or something similar.
inimino 10y ago
This is basically Wikipedia. Wikipedia gives you the consensus view on pretty much every area of human knowledge. People who reject Wikipedia as a reliable source would reject the solution you propose as well.
- Qwertious 10y ago
  "Wikipedia gives you the consensus view on pretty much every area of human knowledge." Doesn't Wikipedia say that climate change is a thing? I bring that up, because it contradicts much consensus.
  - inimino 10y ago
    What? Are you trying to say that the consensus view is that climate change isn't a thing?

H4CK3RM4N 10y ago

Google is trying that with their 'single answer' box(I forgot the name). Sadly, that tends to lead to worse misconceptions then before. There are a few examples in: https://youtu.be/hgEPHIaScck https://youtu.be/hgEPHIaScck

krapp 10y ago

> I really think that sometimes people just have a hard time seeing or understanding the sheer scale of evidence that is opposed to their flawed beliefs. No, they would discount the credibility of that evidence before entertaining the possibility that they might be wrong. If you created a page rank for ideas, to prove to them how unlikely their beliefs were to be true, such people would dismiss the attempt as propaganda. Just look at how often various points of view on HN (which one would expect to self-select for rational, scientifically minded thinkers) are derided as fabrications, "fake news", the work of shills, disinformation, or something similar.

inimino 10y ago

This is basically Wikipedia. Wikipedia gives you the consensus view on pretty much every area of human knowledge. People who reject Wikipedia as a reliable source would reject the solution you propose as well.

Qwertious 10y ago
"Wikipedia gives you the consensus view on pretty much every area of human knowledge." Doesn't Wikipedia say that climate change is a thing? I bring that up, because it contradicts much consensus.
- inimino 10y ago
  What? Are you trying to say that the consensus view is that climate change isn't a thing?