31–40 of 47 posts
I wonder if there is an ethical limit to some categories of knowledge. There are surely some sociological phenomena which are currently unexplained, but could potentially be explained by, say, incredibly invasive monitoring of peoples’ lives, but which we would probably rather remain unexplained than go down that route.
It is difficult for anyone in any scientific field to know where the big knowledge gaps are. Yet I can plausibly imagine a method whereby LLMs could identify research gaps, particularly when supported by scientists in the field.
In a near world where human scientists and AI collaborate much more closely on semiautomated scientific knowledge production, finding and filling knowledge gaps might be an approach for guiding work.
I wonder if there is an ethical limit to some categories of knowledge. There are surely some sociological phenomena which are currently unexplained, but could potentially be explained by, say, incredibly invasive monitoring of peoples’ lives, but which we would probably rather remain unexplained than go down that route.
Get a large enough population and you'll be able to get volunteers for any conceivable experiment.
Every time I see a bird up close I’m struck by how weird they are, but I didn’t realise they were quite so mysterious.
1400 articles, spanning math to medicine to biology to archeology and more…this is a tiny sip of an ocean of unknowns.
Considering the infinity of knowable facts, and the finite number of facts which are known, any list of unknowns will always be a drop in the proverbial bucket.
take all knowledge of known things and imagine its a circle, the radius is touching known unknowns.
as known grows, the radius expands and touches more unknowns.
i don't think that will ever end.
I wonder if this might cause the perception coined by 'idiocracy', that people keep being 'dumber'. actually they know relatively the same but its better understood that its really not a lot thats known?
Hit the random button a few times and every article was bird-related. Every time I see a bird up close I’m struck by how weird they are, but I didn’t realise they were quite so mysterious.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm glad you're thinking about this. It's always strange to search for a topic, and find a dozen hits, most with one post max, and one which went absolutely viral. In a world where karma/upvotes/etc actually does contribute to reputation, it seems unfair and arbitrary.
> karma/upvotes/etc actually does contribute to reputation I hope not!
Like if your last three comments got upvotes, it would say "you're trending good" or something (and vice versa for downvotes). People's monkey brains get too focused on a single number which inevitably gets tied to their identity/reputation, even on a place like HN where it's essentially invisible.
I wouldn't lose a wink if you decided to hide the karma system completely from us HN users, but I'm sure some would.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm glad you're thinking about this. It's always strange to search for a topic, and find a dozen hits, most with one post max, and one which went absolutely viral. In a world where karma/upvotes/etc actually does contribute to reputation, it seems unfair and arbitrary.
> karma/upvotes/etc actually does contribute to reputation I hope not!