If you could have every answer to your history based questions, would you take them? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 4 months ago by Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

26 comments fedilink hide all child comments

It turns out that something has been watching the Earth in minute detail since before the solar system was formed, down to a sub molecular level. It can give you the answers to any historical questions, but not things like what someone was thinking or feeling.

All the world's problems have been solved, and the information is only used with the strictest privacy, e.g. you can only get information on living people with their permission, or if you're a member of law enforcement solving a crime.

The question is, if you have a hobby, job, or other reason to research the past, like being a geologist or genealogist, would you take the answers, or would you prefer to do the research yourself?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 months ago

Out of curiosity, what sort of things would you explore? I enjoy researching certain things, so having all the answers would spoil that for me.

[-] leaky_shower_thought@feddit.nl 2 points 4 months ago

as to my understanding, the thing/being can only answer how questions and will probably be poor at why questions.

knowing some event happened can be a step on explaining a more generic pattern to events. this could be one of the avenues of exploration.

[-] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 months ago

I wonder how much something like that would answer the why too. As an example, if a person threw something across a room and broke it without an obvious reason, could you look at a complete record of their history, and the history of the people around them, and figure out the reason. Would you be able to see signs of anger building through the day and look back to the root cause?

[-] leaky_shower_thought@feddit.nl 1 points 3 months ago

It really depends on the goal. Some people's goal on why questions just needs how answers. An example would be a question asking "Why does the balloon grow big?" and a probable satisfying answer is "because someone is blowing air in it".

this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2024

35 points (87.2% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27268 readers

2105 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

6) No US Politics.

Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.