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The most depressing thing for me is the feeling that I simply cannot trust anything that has been written in the past 2 years or so and up until the day that I

The most depressing thing for me is the feeling that I simply cannot trust anything that has been written in the past 2 years or so and up until the day that I die. What AI is going to teach people is that they don't actually need to trust half as many things as they thought they did, but that they do need to verify what's left. This has always been the case. We've just been deferring to 'truster organizations' a lot recently, without actually looking to see if they still warrant having our trust when they change over time.

layer8 2y ago
How can you verify most of anything if you can’t trust any writing (or photographs, audio, and video, for that matter)?
- Frost1x 2y ago
  Independent verification is always good however not always possible and practical. At complex levels of life we have to just trust underlying processes work, usually until something fails. I don’t go double checking civil engineers work (nor could I) for every bridge I drive over. I don’t check inspection records to make sure it was recent and proper actions were taken. I trust that enough people involved know what they’re doing with good enough intent that I can take my 20 second trip over it in my car without batting an eye. If I had to verify everything, I’m not sure how I’d get across many bridges on a daily basis. Or use any major infrastructure in general where my life might be at risk. And those are cases where it’s very important to be done right, if it’s some accounting form or generated video on the internet… I have even less time to be concerned from a practical standpoint. Having the skills to do it should I want or need to are good and everyone should have these but we’re at a point in society we really have to outsource trust in a lot of cases. This is true everywhere, even in science which these days many people just trust in ways akin to faith in some cases, and I don’t see anyway around that. The key being that all the information should exist to be able to independently verify something but from a practice standpoint it’s rarely viable.
- lmm 2y ago
  Get good at spotting inconsistencies. And pay attention to when something contradicts your own experience. Cultivate a wide range of experiences so that you have more domains where you can do this (this is a good idea anyway).

layer8 2y ago

How can you verify most of anything if you can’t trust any writing (or photographs, audio, and video, for that matter)?

Frost1x 2y ago
Independent verification is always good however not always possible and practical. At complex levels of life we have to just trust underlying processes work, usually until something fails. I don’t go double checking civil engineers work (nor could I) for every bridge I drive over. I don’t check inspection records to make sure it was recent and proper actions were taken. I trust that enough people involved know what they’re doing with good enough intent that I can take my 20 second trip over it in my car without batting an eye. If I had to verify everything, I’m not sure how I’d get across many bridges on a daily basis. Or use any major infrastructure in general where my life might be at risk. And those are cases where it’s very important to be done right, if it’s some accounting form or generated video on the internet… I have even less time to be concerned from a practical standpoint. Having the skills to do it should I want or need to are good and everyone should have these but we’re at a point in society we really have to outsource trust in a lot of cases. This is true everywhere, even in science which these days many people just trust in ways akin to faith in some cases, and I don’t see anyway around that. The key being that all the information should exist to be able to independently verify something but from a practice standpoint it’s rarely viable.
lmm 2y ago
Get good at spotting inconsistencies. And pay attention to when something contradicts your own experience. Cultivate a wide range of experiences so that you have more domains where you can do this (this is a good idea anyway).