On 06/12/2007, Fred Bauder <fredbaud(a)fairpoint.net> wrote:
I was in an evil mood and confess to trolling; there
are a lot of good
thoughts at
http://yudkowsky.net/virtues/ besides the sentence I seized
on. We have published a "consensus of the most widespread error" from
time to time, particularly in the run-up to the Iraq War. (I was one of
the parties in error). Especially with current events, it is hard to
know when you are doing that as our favored sources, in my case The New
York Times, are fostering the error.
Even were we perfect overnight - all our articles neutral and informed
and comprehensive - we would still be guilty of this; an encyclopedia
reflects existing knowledge, and all too often existing knowledge is
systematically wrong.
(The most obvious dangerspots are physics, biology, astronomy - fields
that could have one unexpected announcement tomorrow throw entire
textbooks out of whack.)
I'm not sure it's in our best interests to pre-empt this, though
ensuring we can transition as smoothly as possible is always good. (I
remember the day of Sorting Out All The Pluto Stuff)
--
- Andrew Gray
andrew.gray(a)dunelm.org.uk