Monday, March 2, 2015

Now Here's An Idea

Google to rank websites on basis of trustworthiness.
This may counter the anti-science and those who confuse opinions with facts.
I think all websites, articles, information should also be dated. Nothing like looking for information about something time sensitive and finding only articles that are 10 years old.

3 comments:

Russ Manley said...

A nice idea, but I'm afraid absolutely nothing will deter people who prefer opinions to facts - that goes too much against the grain of human nature. It's so much more fun to just make up shit than to go look up dull, boring facts.

Besides, Frank - Quis custodiet ipsos custodies? Here's the key phrase from the article you linked to:

"Facts the web unanimously agrees on are considered a reasonable proxy for truth. Web pages that contain contradictory information are bumped down the rankings."

Oh, yes, what "the web agrees on" is close enough for TRUTH, surely! I've happened to come across a few articles recently that suggest that mustaches are totally creepy. That must be right, if everybody says so - no?

Besides, what about an article that quotes antigay frothers, Holocaust denier, climate-change deniers, etc., etc., etc., only to attack their arguments? What score would that get?

Nice idea, but I don't see how it can ever substitute for intelligence and enlightenment - besides, it's rather Big Brotherish, isn't it? One day we may get an email saying something like, "Your blog has failed to achieve a minimum truthiness rating of 65 percent. Hence, your blog is banned from the net, and besides that, we are coming to take your dog away too."

Imagine what uses a shithead dictator like Putin could make of an "Internet Truth Index", carefully manipulated!

Be careful what you wish for.

Frank said...

Oh, Russ!
I had such high hopes!

Russ Manley said...

Sorry, Frank. I really shouldn't comment on any blogs before I've had breakfast and got my blood sugar up. I'm a little grumpy in the mornings.

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