Post ApTGCqBYZLfAPRbmee by Buggerlugs@mstdn.party
(DIR) More posts by Buggerlugs@mstdn.party
(DIR) Post #ASLwcKbGv7xh9UYgMK by tomw@mastodon.social
2023-02-04T22:25:00Z
8 likes, 17 repeats
People worry a lot about losing knowledge — about "burned-down libraries".Comparatively few people seem to worry about what happens if you take a billion books full of auto-generated, often-untrue junk text and *add* them all to the library.In theory, nothing is lost. In reality, everything is lost, because nothing useful can now be found.
(DIR) Post #ASM61HLh2q2RtaF5U0 by ML2@akkoma.sandhill.social
2023-02-05T02:32:41.201882Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@tomwI've been using a lot more site specific searches and even specialized search engines like marginalia.nu
(DIR) Post #ASM6GIk09RfOYZm97w by AnokheeTara@ohai.social
2023-02-04T22:36:05Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@tomw that sounds rather like my Google search results this morning
(DIR) Post #ASM6GJQtZxyghbqOzA by tomw@mastodon.social
2023-02-04T22:39:05Z
2 likes, 0 repeats
@AnokheeTara Yep. It's been getting worse for a while but it's accelerating.
(DIR) Post #ASMVjAa44GF8V3zRB2 by lanodan@queer.hacktivis.me
2023-02-05T07:20:18.859436Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@tomw Yeah, The Library of Babel is the most useless library of all.
(DIR) Post #ASMb908i0gQfPvKbM8 by adamgreenfield@social.coop
2023-02-04T22:54:39Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@tomw …aaaaaand *that* is how Jorge Lewes Borges came up with the plot of “The Library of Bebel”!
(DIR) Post #ASSIEHnD4RNBR1qDlQ by ssfckdt@mastodon.cloud
2023-02-05T05:51:39Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@tomw "explain the history of Google in two sentences"
(DIR) Post #ASSIIqGMqwFvV7eUMa by vga256@dialup.cafe
2023-02-05T04:19:04Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@tomw this is one of the core theses of jane jacobs' (underrated!) book 'Dark Age Ahead'. i've thought about it many times over the past 20 years, and it has only become increasingly true over time.
(DIR) Post #ASSITGvUZezf5jrS9Q by mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io
2023-02-05T03:08:10Z
3 likes, 1 repeats
@tomw I suspect that writing certifiably produced before 2021 will be considered differently than writing produced afterwards, at least for some time.Like low background steel for writing. 🤷🏿♂️https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel
(DIR) Post #ASSIUiKk9z4gNpMNMm by vortex_egg@ioc.exchange
2023-02-05T01:04:11Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@adamgreenfield @tomw Real librarians know that our mission is to find Borges’ Library of Babel and burn it to the ground.
(DIR) Post #ASSIjqw4SaHBPE2Qm8 by jeffcliff@shitposter.club
2023-02-08T02:23:27.930517Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
this, except instead of 2021 it should be 2016, when AlphaGo beat Lee Sedol, when we draw the point of the intelligence explosion beginning
(DIR) Post #ASSJHI1OmBHIy3TSNs by NEETzsche@iddqd.social
2023-02-08T02:29:31.464626Z
4 likes, 1 repeats
I feel like all those schizophrenic gnostic texts I read are going to see some real vindication in the next few years considering how media-addled the average person is on this planet. People are going to spend a majority of their waking hours staring into a box that can show them exactly what makes them happy, but insists on showing them falsehoods that upset them instead.
(DIR) Post #ASSK7KDfqhviqK1oOm by LoneWanderer@chudbuds.lol
2023-02-08T02:38:56.472095Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
Thats happening now fren lol
(DIR) Post #ASVWsNjkN5FOHo7Ahc by christianhujer@mastodon.social
2023-02-09T11:40:21Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@tomw I don't know if this makes you feel better or worse: I do worry about that. I am watching in horror as the quality of Google search results is in constant decline, favoring ad-ridden low quality secondary sources over high-quality primary sources, and a glorified ChatGPT tells blatant lies about almost anything with utmost confidence.
(DIR) Post #ApTGClwAMcyXEYNR6u by AnnaG31@mastodon.social
2023-12-11T21:20:26Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@tomw I read apocalypse story about all the digital materials being zapped by EMP so they only had a few paper books remaining & had to learn everything from those........
(DIR) Post #ApTGCotnLtrSQ4I5Ka by dequbed@mastodon.chaosfield.at
2023-12-12T10:48:30Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@tomw Which is why we should focus on libraries as *infrastructure*. Librarians are responsible for keeping that infrastructure alive, and the job of libraries isn't to store books, it's to *make knowledge accessible*. So a well kept library shouldn't allow those billion books to be added because for all their text, they don't add knowledge.
(DIR) Post #ApTGCqBYZLfAPRbmee by Buggerlugs@mstdn.party
2023-02-05T05:51:47Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@tomw in engineering it's called "Signal to noise ratio" or SNR. To extract signal, it has to be discernable within the noise. To suppress signal, increase the noise. The voice of truth can be suppressed by the babble of lies. The conspiracy theories aren't dangerous in themselves but pile them deep enough and people lose touch with reality.
(DIR) Post #ApTGCtjLOBTLP6RJEe by kakurady@fursuits.online
2023-12-11T13:38:07Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@tomw libraries prune their collections... Sometimes aggressively! It's the curation that makes the collection valuable. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/weeding-is-fundamental/
(DIR) Post #ApTGCzpahs2CKDPNo0 by wintercoziness@mathstodon.xyz
2023-12-11T14:48:28Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@tomw The best way to hide a tree is in a forest.
(DIR) Post #AqZ5OghrlQ9vkbozcO by hyc@mastodon.social
2023-02-05T07:21:48Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@tomw A Colombian judge used chatGPT in a ruling.So chatGPT makes up answers out of thin air, those answers become part of public record, search engines index them, then you're done: no longer able to search for factual answers to questions.https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/feb/03/colombia-judge-chatgpt-ruling
(DIR) Post #AqZ5OhrTTBRHKhKBEW by hyc@mastodon.social
2025-01-28T18:22:23Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
who could possibly have seen this coming - oh right...https://mastodon.social/@carrideen@c18.masto.host/113907291381069419
(DIR) Post #AqZ5OlBR7QBndTgfGS by hyc@mastodon.social
2023-08-15T18:30:39Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
And there we go - google search has torpedoed itself https://mastodon.social/@rodhilton/110894818243613681
(DIR) Post #AqZ5OlOCLyOiH3er9k by hyc@mastodon.social
2023-09-08T16:46:48Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
who could possibly have seen this coming... https://mastodon.social/@cynicalsecurity@bsd.network/111030157657101339
(DIR) Post #AqZ5OlVHvc4Kd2yWCu by hyc@mastodon.social
2023-09-04T19:03:59Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
and more AI-powered knowledge destruction https://mastodon.social/@SamYourEyes@mas.to/111007431434469712
(DIR) Post #AqZ5OlYpiQu8o2dLjU by hyc@mastodon.social
2023-10-16T15:59:11Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@tomw still more AI-powered knowledge destruction https://mastodon.social/@bagder/111245232072475867
(DIR) Post #AqZ5Opspe1HKDE1NSa by hyc@mastodon.social
2023-12-18T21:46:22Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@tomw Sure didn't take long to get to this point https://mastodon.social/@clive@saturation.social/111603595942410608
(DIR) Post #AqZ5OrYhPqMXPMcKMC by avram@wandering.shop
2023-02-05T03:23:26Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
@adamgreenfield @tomw I was just going to bring up that Borges story, only the Library of ChatGPT is even worse. Most of the texts in the Library of Babel are obvious nonsense. The Library of ChatGPT is filled with superficially-valid texts.
(DIR) Post #Axy2bMZTq4z6fVQZ60 by hyc@mastodon.social
2025-09-07T12:09:03Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
who could possibly have seen this coming...https://geeknews.chat/@theregister/115162888476951985
(DIR) Post #Az3ByCqz0CO20vNSTo by hyc@mastodon.social
2025-10-09T16:22:40Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
More people are having the same realization: the use of AI is destroying our ability to retrieve actual information. https://mastodon.social/@richpuchalsky/115332726924394162
(DIR) Post #AzIWDE55dJVkcRoX8i by hyc@mastodon.social
2025-10-17T06:01:32Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
More on AI's destruction of knowledge https://mastodon.social/@nixCraft/115387473218466349