"A fifth of gays are victims of hate"

That was the headline for today in the metro. It got me thinking...


If you asked ANYONE whether they've been a victim of hate; and i'm pretty sure 100% of them would say yes. So the gay population are doing REALLY well for themselves, if only a fifth of gay people are victimised. I reckon that there's much to be learned from the LGBT population if thats the case.

Sorry, it made me chuckle so i thought i'd share a bit of my madness with you :)

Coincidentally aly, we're currently clearing our build and trying something new; like learning to code c++ properly :). I'll no doubt give this an edit at some point soon

A friend once said to me that they should produce a TV show based purely how I perceive the world. Although he said it with a sodding great cheesy grin on his face, he was pretty sincere about it all. And today, for some reason I keep thinking about well, anything but my revision. So I thought I'd share some brain munchies with you...

 

• The impact of Wikipedia on the world

Initially, the world was full of ignorant peasants. Literally. There were very few with the power, money and ability to be able to be taught how to read/write. Slowly this changed so that more people had access to a very basic education. Eventually it became law for children to remain in schools until a certain age. Eventually, that minimum leaving age was extended.

[ I'm not here to give you a comprehensive report about UK's various education laws., although if you're interested, check out the legislation implemented by the Liberal Government around the early 1900's to around 1910's the post-war Labour government legislation. The Beverage Report probably wouldn't go amiss either. Actually, that's your homework, go read chapters 10-11 of SCHNIGWIG for tomorrow...]

Anyway. with this minimum standard of literacy set, everyone benefits. But there are increasing amounts of 'armchair experts' and a generation of students coming to rely on internet sources like Wikipedia Is this the next stage of education for everyone? Will students of the future be discussing 'The Impact of Wikipedia on the early 21st Century'?

So with more of the population becoming reliant on such source (The main culprit is Wikipedia, but there ARE others out there. I'm not ignoring them, I'm just too lazy to write "and other associated wikis and communal knowledge bases across the internet" each time.) is there responsibilities that Wikipedia should be considering?

Currently, Wikipedia (the community as a whole) strives to make sure that all the content is as correct as possible. The strength of Wikipedia is also its weakness. Everyone can make sure that the entries are correct, but on the other side, others can interfere with the information and put up stupid (but sometimes vaguely humorous) alterations to the entries.

An example of how bad this can be outlined by the case that I had seen with my own very eyes. Somebody had modified the page by writing that there's evidence that smoking does not affect you in any shape or manner and then sourced it. The person had set up a site claiming just that (I couldn't find any other pages this website hosted on its web server I might add). Although potentially benign to anybody educated ("obviously there are side effects etc"), but there is a generation coming to rely on this information.

What if a group of somebodies attempted to rewrite all of the posts in such a way such that all the entries were still correct, but with a specific slant. It could be a method of mass brainwashing people. So we come to the instigating spark on the whole topic

"What if the Nazis tried to take over? And if I were a Nazi, how would I go about doing it"

A slightly obscure chain of thoughts I know but this is what fell out of my brain. Although a slightly ludicrous notion on the surface, it still has some worrying pausing points. With modern day technology, it isn't inconceivable for someone to implement a cluster of machines each with various different log in details and accounts to systematically trawl through each post changing the wording all the time, but not the content. The technology is there ladies and gents (and as for the crazy bot checkers, they just prevent the novice programmer writing a bot that accesses the websites. a determined one can usually overcome them) just not the ones implementing it.

The way people and technology are, there will probably come a time (after electronic tattoos) that will feel comfortable with electronics in their bodies, and the market for instant links to information banks so that they don't even need to be at a computer to recall details. What is probably the biggest collection of electronic knowledge in existence, can you guess where the most logical place to first check for knowledge is going to be?

That's right - Wikipedia

Now the ridiculous notion that I mentioned before doesn't quite seem so crazy now. Brainwashing can most effectively and without it becoming apparent? Teaching people (from any age) slowly and constantly things, but with whatever slant you wish on it. Everything they do, or want to know, you can conceivably put your slant on it. With people connecting to knowledge sources all the time via this new technology, the entire world could become brainwashed subtly.

Let alone the other ramifications for not thinking and remembering things for yourself. There will come a point where people could become dependant on it. So just remember that wiki ISN'T the hey-all and end-all of all knowledge.

I guess what I'm saying deep down is :

Keep an eye out for Nazi's tampering with your wikis...


DISCLAIMER :

Wikipedia is a wonderful thing. You can know NOTHING about a subject, look it up and then have it explained in layman's terms and usually increasing in complexity if you want to read further. But it should not be the sole stop for your thirst for knowledge. Wikipedia is useful for initially tackling a subject, but you should then go and seek a book on the subject now that you have a vague feel for the topic. Please don't sue me :)

 

• The emergence of technology

Don't worry, this one's brief compared to the previous one.

I was sitting down enjoying an icepole that my flatmate kindly bought me, when I realised they had changed the design of the icepole! What?! I know. They did.

They are now actually easy to open! I mean, you don't need to carry scissors around with you all the time! You grab your pole, snap it in two and et viola! You can eat your icepole. No problems, no fannying around while it all melts on you.

And then, as my thoughts do, wander down the slightly dimmed streets of my brain, and then get mugged and ambushed by gangs of totally random linking nodes.

I ended up thinking on how much of an excellent metaphor they are for technology. No matter how much you change it, you are generally just changing the method of getting at something. The something rarely changes. Even Einstein, fantastic chap that he was, didn't think of all the concepts that are accredited to him, he just went to the next level of shrink wrapping it and ended finding out new things!

I'm particularly jaded though, and think that the stream engine was the only novel invention known to mankind, after fire and war.

Although I could be completely and utterly wrong. It could be that icepoles are trying to corner the scissor manufacturers out of the market...

 

I guess this is more of a disclaimer page. Most of my entries are flocked (friend locked for you lot who munge words less than i).

So to be able to access my no doubt riveting life that is being recounted of lj, then you'll need to be requested and approved. This does make the rather large assumption that you want to view it in the first place though.....

See you on the other side!