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Loquebantur • today at 12:53 PM • 3 replies • view on HN

No, you're wrong.

You might want to look up the actual definition of knowledge. It's a pretty interesting topic in epistemology really, far from your simplistic take.

You already live in coexistence with minds more powerful than yours. Society works in a way that you never need to notice that, those minds taking care of things beyond your grasp for you.

The downside of that "convenience" is you developing an over-simplified bubble-view of the world, rendering you prone to arbitrarily hazardous misjudgements.

Here, you align foolishly with interests that cannot possibly be your own. Namely, exploiting scientific knowledge for personalized monetary gain on an unsustainable scale.

When a tiny group of people hogs essentially all scientific knowledge, that renders you what?

Your idea of being graciously provided with some "basic income" or whatever is blind copium. You would live as livestock at best, to be discarded as useless whenever your masters see fit.


Replies

vinceguidry • today at 3:28 PM

You could have explained why he was wrong before injecting your opinions into the discussion.

He's wrong because the epistemological formula is the justified true belief. The infallible oracle simply gave Archimedes a true belief, the needed justification, sensors that can actually give meaning to the precise number, would take hundreds of years to develop. Archimedes would have to sit there with the oracle and develop modern physics together before the oracle can be said to have given him knowledge.

And AI won't have given us any actual knowledge until it can fit its findings into the mathematical establishment. I forget who it was that said that society doesn't know anything until you can teach it to a room-full of undergrads, but that's about right.

And you will have to actually show your intellectual work before your arguing here will actually accomplish your goal of sounding smart.

txrx0000 • today at 2:40 PM

I don't think the social problems you listed can be solved by redefining knowledge to your convenience - they can play that game better than you can. The definition of knowledge in this context is simply that which describes reality. And the person you're replying to was correct in saying that the thing gained from the oracle was knowledge itself, even though they've not considered the epistemological nuances.

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A_D_E_P_T • today at 1:18 PM

The dictionary definition says that knowledge is information gained by study -- i.e., in the very vast majority of cases, by being told. What's your definition? Come on, humor me.

The rest of your post is excessively emotional and off-target.

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