RE: https://sauropods.win/@futurebird/116304296612633497
A thing that my years working in the software industry have taught me is that sometimes people just want information. Not good information, not accurate information, not useful information. They just want information.
“Here is a transparently fictional timeline for our project!”
“Here is some technical gobbledygook that will make you sound smart if your parrot it with confidence!”
“Here is a slide full of charts nobody will ever critically examine or even superficially understand!”
“Here are some quantitative metrics whose meaning is beyond dubious, but we sure as heck were able to output those numbers!”
“Here is a whitepaper that sounds just like your idea of what a smart person sounds like!”
@inthehands while ai is causing new problems here I think this is also part of how we teach people how expertise and the social value of "smartness" works.
Sure people often need to rely on the expertise of others, but we should emphasize that it's an exercise in community and trust.... and usually we don't, schools present it as an exercise in authority... so yeah people go looking for something that produces authority for them.
Paul Cantrell
Krzysztof Sakrejda
Avi Rappoport (avirr)