Durrendal
JA WestenbergWe built an entire civilisation around the idea that more information would make us wiser.
We have more information than any humans who ever lived.
We are not wiser.
Dave Dawkins (D. Harrigon)@Daojoan A lot of us are. I certainly am with the internet at my fingertips. But there are so many people abusing information to feed their bottomless longing to be superior.
GrumpyDad ๐บ๐ฆ๐ต๐ธ@Daojoan To be fair some (or many at least) of us are. Unfortunately, the opposite also seems to be true.
Nikkileah ๐ฎ๐๐ณ๏ธโโง๏ธ๐ฌ๐ง@Daojoan sadly, the same tools used to share information have also been used for propaganda, disinformation and lies.
Jon Sullivan@Daojoan Yup. Cue one of my favourite Douglas Adams quotations, from Last Chance to See (1990):
"It's easy to think that as a result of the extinction of the dodo we are now sadder and wiser, but there's a lot of evidence to suggest that we are merely sadder and better informed."
Desikner@Daojoan We built the internet thinking we would have all the information in the world at our fingertips, thus making us more informed. But we failed to see that misinformation spreads faster than information.
Frischling
Stephen Dioxide 
@Daojoan Tech does not lead to doing things better, or to doing better things. Tech just allows us to do the same things as before, but faster.
EndlessMason@Daojoan
We have information shaped things.
We have information shaped things.
Todd Bee ๐จ๐ฆ, ๐๐@Daojoan We're basically the equivalent of going to a buffet restaurant with the intent of limiting yourself to grilled chicken and steamed broccoli, but two hours later, you've stuffed yourself with fried foods, cheese, and dessert.
Jimmy
Count Holdem@Daojoan We should be wiser with artificial data, like AI and ultra-processed foods that diminish every generation's capacity, for deciphering the lesser, from the greater.
Ignorance truly is, the ultimate enemy.
@Daojoan well put. Information is just a tool and doesn't define wisdom at all. We still need to contemplate it's use, act upon it, and habituate that action to become wise.
In the age of LLMs it's easier than ever to jump straight to an "I sound wise" solution without the slightest modicum of depth and the result. Aristotle pointed to this same problem in Nicomachean Ethics when he discussed craft labor and Phronesis and drew the same conclusions.
Nosaj 
Androcat
an actual bus@Daojoan This is the main thing I'm wrestling with as I work to contiinue loving humanity honestly.
It's relevant to note that the information age is still very young however. There's a huge proportion of the population still who grew up without it.
@Daojoan
Knowledge
Knowledge
Cat ๐๐ฅ (D.Burch) 
โ @Daojoan It is, however, the golden age of cat photos!
Till
Steve Foerster ๐@Daojoan Even back in the late '90s the joke was: "We used to think that if you had infinite monkeys banging away on typewriters that one would eventually produce the works of Shakespeare, but now we have the Internet and know that's not so."
Pier HegemanWe are unquestionably wiser*
The fact that a relatively small number of bad actors have used the tools of information to build obscene wealth and power for themselves doesnโt negate our wisdom, but it does expose the vulnerability of our social structure which, I think, is based on an assumption that the many good people can/will stop the few bad.
So wiser, or better informed, doesnโt necessarily mean we automatically have a better society.
*In my opinion. Not claiming to be the sole arbiter of wisdom, etc.
Sharp Leaves@Daojoan That really isn't the fault of the people reading the information. No-one made the caveat 'you have all this information, but you need to avoid everything eye-catching, engaging, or anything that speaks your language to find the truth'.
It's entirely the fault of the parasites abusing the free-information paradise to spread brain rotting dark pattern ruled social spaces and political brainwashing.
Joanie with the Good Hair ๐ทnoise vs. sound
Darwin Woodkasignal to noise ratio
Ryek DarkenerBecause we do not want to.
TM
janggolan@timagal @Daojoan The Internet Classics Archive: 441 searchable works of classical literature
https://classics.mit.edu/index.html
https://classics.mit.edu/index.html
@Daojoan That's what happens when you ignore the information or let others suppress it.
R_Stieltjes@Daojoan there is a huge knowing doing gap in every corner of society.
แดฎแตโฟ แดฟแตสธแถแตVOTE IN THE PRIMARIESthe original vision was the #internet would usher in a golden age of knowledge, and therefore enlightenment
the problem with easy connectivity though is it does not only connect people with knowledge bases
it also connects people with each other- in regards to the pridefully ignorant and bigots, and it connects them with propaganda and disinfo bases
Humphrey Archer@benroyce
Right in the beginning there, it really did
I recall the joy of reaching out directly to researchers and experts, and get real info right off the minds of the people doing the stuff.
It was the kind of jaw-dropping thing where you could ask about Fresnel zones in a microwave data link that you were experimenting with in an underground diamond mine in Africa, and OVERNIGHT, some guy in Kiruna would send you info.
For a moment, it was magical
And then the AOLers arrived
i did the same
thing is you can still reach out like that
but now you have to cut through a ton of cruft first. and the knowledgeable you eventually find are more reticent to reply, considering the mountains of bullshit they are dealing with as well
DaveI kind of agree - except that it wasn't the AOLers that spoiled it, but the moneygrabbers.
The internet as it was in the early days is still there, but the slop created by the moneygrabbers has buried it.
LLM slop is just the latest kind of slop.
I could go on, but the basic problem is that whenever someone tries to make money out of a service, enshittification is guaranteed.
The moneygrabbers followed the AOLers like rats follow roaches
When the AOLers arrived, the tone shifted, there was more bluster, more flamewars, and soon it was hard to get to real info because of all these loudmouths running around and being sex pests
Then the grifters arrived, because that's where the herd of prey had gone, and soon your email and messageboards were filled with ads and come-ons that drowned out the guy in a research lab in Finland
"For a moment, it was magical --
And then the AOLers arrived"
Plot for a horror movie
Knightmare@Daojoan it is not that we have more information, we have more missinformation.
Dopes The Frogman@Daojoan I miss the days before the internet, humans were never mend to be exposed to all this information and filth.
@Daojoan There's a cognitive bias in the base idea.
It's like saying someone died of thirst while adrift in the ocean, and desuming water isn't that important. Or that drowning results in water being always dangerous.
What is relevant is how information management has been shaped, and the methods and capacity we have for assimilation, as with water.
GJ Groothedde ๐ช๐บ@Daojoan Well, there's only so much information we can absorb.
Danish AkhtarWe are suffering from 'Information Overload'. Excess of anything is bad.
Toni Aittoniemi@Daojoan Some of us probably are.
But the problem is that even if most people could never recognise wisdom.
Actually, it could be argued that we have always know this problem, and thus went to great lengths to form complex systems of accredition that serve to point people towards real wisdom.
Then we tore it all down in a decade.
Nine Stones Close@Daojoan not wiser, just easier access to information that shows us how unwise humans are
UkeleleEric@Daojoan Was noted by C.S. Lewis many years ago that education doesn't produce saints, but cleverer devils...
Phil Wolff@Daojoan so wisdom emerges from...?
Hel ๐ชท๐ณ๏ธโ๐@Daojoan This is an enlightening insight.
danimo ๐ณ๏ธโ๐@Daojoan Was it information or education?
Quasit
M. Grรฉgoire@Daojoan The more information we have, the more clever people can find support for the arguments they want to make.
william โ maggosfree speech is not enough when the systems we use mean most people are having their attention hijacked. when the wealthiest can interrupt us with whatever they choose and our lizard brains get played by algos like we're constantly in the supermarket checkout lane and surrounded by tabloid content.
the endless info/opinion/art environment of the web requires an attention management system that works for us. the best I've got is we do it together ala fedi etc.