Thursday, May 12, 2011

first thought upon waking today

If the sum of human knowledge is doubling every five years, does that mean I'm twice as stupid as I was in 2006?

Half as smart as back then, plus whatever I've managed to learn.  But minus everything I've forgotten, so it may be a wash.

3 comments:

  1. Eh, soon you'll be able to re-sheet the neurons in your brain, so it won't really matter... :)

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  2. This makes my brain hurt. As a younger man I could make sense of this--that and how to run combat in Top Secret.

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  3. Anonymous3:07 PM

    Maybe the sum of human knowledge includes people learning things that others already knew. Increased basic education rather than increased outfield research.

    Second, what if the sum of human knowledge means internet expansion? In which case, since most websites seem to be automatically generated marketing referral sites and blogs about knitting sex toy cozies, such data is absolutely pointless and the increase of it doesn't diminish your own knowledge.

    Third, what if the sum of human knowledge means the amount of data stored? In which case, most of it is just multiple copies of what you bought at the grocery store yesterday and desperate Nigerian spam.

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