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Where the Wood-Wide Web Went Wrong

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11–20 of 22 posts

Re: Where the Wood-Wide Web Went Wrong

#11
I feel like the author of this article should have brought the economics of both journalism and scientific research into the equation here.

Every academic scientist I know says that grant funding favors sensationalized, spectacular sounding results, and journalists know that carefully reported, nuanced stories don’t get clicks or move ad inventory. The current economic incentives of both endeavors feed less than ideal outcomes in both.

Re: Where the Wood-Wide Web Went Wrong

#12
post #6

[flagged]

Whatever toolset there is will eventually be bent to the shape of the task at hand. Real problem being: the web was created to share hyper text, but got monetized as a giant global blob of retail and advertisement. All the issues JS may have from whichever point of view are symptoms, not the cause of any of it.

Re: Where the Wood-Wide Web Went Wrong

#13
this reads like compulsive, preemptively obedient penance for pretty petty reasons. first of all the idea of cmns as a www is not falsified and still holds as a hypothesis. the only problem is that it's not proven and confidence of its existence has been blown a little out of proportion. but what's this fuss about romanticizing and anthropomorphizing nature? i mean so what? this article reads almost like people are dying, arguing "consequences can be far-reaching, affecting policy decisions that impact real people". what are those consequences? that we treat forest and trees with a little more care? i'd argue that the idea of www is closer to reality than the simplified notions of modern forest industry of how soil works. just look at the state of commercial forests. most trees and plants do need fungi - that's scientifically proven. and now we argue about the dangers of buying into fungi also connecting plants? this seems a little overblown.

Re: Where the Wood-Wide Web Went Wrong

#14

this reads like compulsive, preemptively obedient penance for pretty petty reasons. first of all the idea of cmns as a www is not falsified and still holds as a hypothesis. the only problem is that it's not proven and confidence of its existence has been blown a little out of proportion. but what's this fuss about romanticizing and anthropomorphizing nature? i mean so what? this article reads almost like people are d…

Anthropomorphizing nature is an easy trap to fall into largely because the electric hams in our skulls is programmed to reach conclusions as quickly as possible for the sake of evaluating our reality, and we tend to put a lot of trust in that. Applying human traits to a non-human entity is just one of the many shortcuts we take to reach said conclusions.

Re: Where the Wood-Wide Web Went Wrong

#15
> The episode underscores how important it is for journalists to seek out a broad range of expert opinions, and to challenge us scientists when our assertions aren’t clearly backed up by rigorous research.

That would require the journalists to be able to evaluate a research study. Most journalists aren't equipped to do that, because they're not scientists. I get the impression that a lot of the "Science Editor" writers are often doing a 2-year stint in that position, after previously working as "International Correspondent" or whatever.

This even seems to be the case when the articles are in popular science collections, like SciAm and phys.org.

Re: Where the Wood-Wide Web Went Wrong

#16

this reads like compulsive, preemptively obedient penance for pretty petty reasons. first of all the idea of cmns as a www is not falsified and still holds as a hypothesis. the only problem is that it's not proven and confidence of its existence has been blown a little out of proportion. but what's this fuss about romanticizing and anthropomorphizing nature? i mean so what? this article reads almost like people are d…

Anthropomorphizing nature is an easy trap to fall into largely because the electric hams in our skulls is programmed to reach conclusions as quickly as possible for the sake of evaluating our reality, and we tend to put a lot of trust in that. Applying human traits to a non-human entity is just one of the many shortcuts we take to reach said conclusions.

not sure if you are questioning or seconding my opinion. but anyway - in hindsight many anthropomorphisms in the past have been closer to what we now consider known about nature than what was considered scientific state back then. science considered most animals as emotionless and mindless machines only few decades ago. now even fish have to be treated humane - and don't get me started on mammals and octopusses. from that point of view anthropomorphizing deserves some historical merit and shouldn't be easily discarded as childish nonesense.

Re: Where the Wood-Wide Web Went Wrong

#17
> Other widely reported claims — that trees use CMNs to signal danger, to recognize offspring, or to share nutrients with other trees — are based on similarly thin or misinterpreted evidence. How did such a weakly sourced narrative take such a strong grip on the public imagination?

We've made wide reaching human policies on completely debunked outdated research.

I'd be super sympathetic to claims that lack strong evidences but aren't disproven either, nor are reaching for a narrative that is outlandish and heavily politicized.

Re: Where the Wood-Wide Web Went Wrong

#18

this reads like compulsive, preemptively obedient penance for pretty petty reasons. first of all the idea of cmns as a www is not falsified and still holds as a hypothesis. the only problem is that it's not proven and confidence of its existence has been blown a little out of proportion. but what's this fuss about romanticizing and anthropomorphizing nature? i mean so what? this article reads almost like people are d…

> this article reads almost like people are dying, arguing "consequences can be far-reaching, affecting policy decisions that impact real people". what are those consequences?

The obvious part would be wrong calculation of emission-trapping. The article mentions co2 quite often. This could mean wrong claims of health-benefits for living areas, or leading to wrong calculations around climate change.

Re: Where the Wood-Wide Web Went Wrong

#19

this reads like compulsive, preemptively obedient penance for pretty petty reasons. first of all the idea of cmns as a www is not falsified and still holds as a hypothesis. the only problem is that it's not proven and confidence of its existence has been blown a little out of proportion. but what's this fuss about romanticizing and anthropomorphizing nature? i mean so what? this article reads almost like people are d…

> this article reads almost like people are dying, arguing "consequences can be far-reaching, affecting policy decisions that impact real people". what are those consequences? The obvious part would be wrong calculation of emission-trapping. The article mentions co2 quite often. This could mean wrong claims of health-benefits for living areas, or leading to wrong calculations around climate change.

> The article mentions co2 quite often.

excuse me? it doesn't mention it even once ...

Re: Where the Wood-Wide Web Went Wrong

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> this article reads almost like people are dying, arguing "consequences can be far-reaching, affecting policy decisions that impact real people". what are those consequences? The obvious part would be wrong calculation of emission-trapping. The article mentions co2 quite often. This could mean wrong claims of health-benefits for living areas, or leading to wrong calculations around climate change.

> The article mentions co2 quite often. excuse me? it doesn't mention it even once ...

Is carbon not co2?
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