Nice explainer how encyclopedias in general are supposed to work. “If Wikipedia had been available around the sixth century BC, it would have reported the view that the Earth is flat as a fact without qualification. It would have also… Read More »Why Wikipedia cannot claim the Earth is not flat
As my high school teacher used to say, not everything is on the internet, because I have not put it there. “For many people, GenAI is becoming their primary way to learn about the world. A large-scale study published in… Read More »Generative AI has access to a small slice of human knowledge
Good tips to get yourself educated. “My recommendation is to pick three very different historical periods that you find fascinating. They can be any three, really, but ideally they will be a bit separated from each other in space, time,… Read More »A Study Guide for Human Society, Part I
A great framework to think about history. “And that’s exactly the problem with zero-dimensional history: a true point contains very little data. A single painting can’t capture the full significance of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, in which… Read More »The Four Shapes of History
Is it magic tough? “Humans’ first big meta-innovation, roughly speaking — the first thing that lifted us above an animal existence — was history. By this, I don’t just mean the chronicling of political events and social trends that we… Read More »The Third Magic
It is more complicated than 5 steps of separation.
Still not sure what to think about her, but she has good points.
Novel ways are coming.
But it happens once in a while. “As of the early 1200s, mentions of Greek Fire disappear from accounts of battles, for unknown reasons. It’s possible that the secret had been forgotten by the Byzantines themselves during the general decline… Read More »We Rarely Loose Technology
Science and engineering in action.