5 ms·
This kind of thing, whilst fun, is kinda dangerous. I'm not so sure what to make of it. I sniffed it out quickly because I have extensive experience with maths.
by akuro 5y ago
This kind of thing, whilst fun, is kinda dangerous. I'm not so sure what to make of it. I sniffed it out quickly because I have extensive experience with maths. Many people don't, because unlike me most people have social lives.
My dad still believes that the Sun makes the "Om" sound after seeing a post by some kind of Hindu nationalist on Twitter. I have told him many times, in the kindest way I can, that it's a load of rubbish. He still doesn't really believe me, mostly because the idea of the Sun making that sound is a pleasant idea that agrees with his world view.
Send this article to a hundred people and a lowball of seventy will take it as fact. Of that seventy, there will be a fraction who will believe it - or rather, internalise the notion of it - even despite being told that it is false.
In all fairness it's also very likely that I'm a just a nasty killjoy.
- dvt 5y ago> Send this article to a hundred people and a lowball of seventy will take it as fact. Of that seventy, there will be a fraction who will believe it - or rather, internalise the notion of it - even despite being told that it is false. So what's your solution? Living in a world with no jokes, no satire, no hyperbole, no poetry, no simile? A world where Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" would've never been published because some people might take it a bit too seriously? I posit that this is the real danger.
- whatshisface 5y agoI think some people might actually be taking A Modest Proposal a bit too seriously. ;)
- hutzlibu 5y ago"Send this article to a hundred people and a lowball of seventy will take it as fact. Of that seventy, there will be a fraction who will believe it - or rather, internalise the notion of it - even despite being told that it is false." And there will be at least some people, who got a valuable lesson, that not everything which looks like a proper citation, is real. But btw. most people will not read the whole thing alltogether and of those who do, because they know the Mandelbrot set - they will likely figure it out, too.
- mistermann 5y agoIs believing the sun makes an "On" sound, or people believing this hoax is true, harmful (or, how harmful, and How/why)?
- FridayoLeary 5y agoI'm not sure how many of those 70 will have ever heard of this mandlebrot equation.
- tpoacher 5y agoJan Hendrik Schön would agree with you. Hindsight is 20/20, of course.