[CLUE-Talk] Political compass

[Jed S. Baer]

On Sun, 9 Nov 2003 12:39:12 -0700
Jeff Cann <j.cann at isuma.org> wrote:

> Do you think people's inability to form their own conclusions, based on
> fact, is a problem throughout the ages of man, or one related to our
> 'modern' world -- one where information / entertainment are mixed at
> times and information is so easy to get that it may not be high quality

Well, it's highly contextual. Or, perhaps more dependent upon scope. The
broader the scope, the more difficult it is. One can become a
subject-matter expert, but that takes an enormous amount of time and
dedication.

I do believe it's a problem throughout mankind's history. The
accessibility of "facts" is better now than it was, for example, before
the invention of the Gutenberg press. But there are also many more
available datums, and we're aware of more interactions.

Perhaps a better question is whether we're more able to form usable
conclusions. Were the Neanderthals able to form conclusions of sufficient
usefulness for their environment? Ultimately, no. Of course, you could
argue that it wasn't a failing of available data, but of their ability to
process it.

I've just finished reading Ray Kurzweil's "The Age of Spiritual Machines".
Another interesting read. Kurzweil talks about how, in the future, machine
intelligence will surpass human intelligence, but at the same time, humans
will be able to enhance their own brainpower with neural implants. The (by
choice) intellectual underclass are the "MOSH" -- Mostly Organic Substrate
Humans, who are unable to comprehend the advanced thinking of their
augmented counterparts. Part of the premise is that there are too many
available facts and interrelations for the human brain to master them. A
contemporary example is the success of computer-implemented algorithms for
stock trading, compared to humans analysts. The pattern-matching ability
of the human brain isn't up to the computational ability of the computer
models.

jed
-- 
... it is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday
facilitate a police state. -- Bruce Schneier