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If someone gave you the entirety of Wikipedia from 100 years in the future for only 10 minutes, what would you read?

Fw: 3/9/2013 7:25:57 PM

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David Gerard

12 Feb 2013 12 Feb '13

8:09 p.m.

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/18dcov/if_someone_gave_you_the_e… - d.

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Nathan

12 Feb 12 Feb

8:11 p.m.

Probably [[List of 100 most valuable companies]], [[Stock index movements last 100 years]] and [[Treatments to reverse aging]]. On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 2:09 PM, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:

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Anthony

11:14 p.m.

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/D****l B****t (752nd nomination) On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 2:09 PM, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:

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Newyorkbrad

11:44 p.m.

I would look up my obituary on the [[Wikipedia:Deceased Wikipedians]] page and see what was listed as my place of death. Then, I would make sure never to go there. Newyorkbrad On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 2:09 PM, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:

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Carcharoth

13 Feb 13 Feb

12:01 a.m.

Yeah, like that would work! Some strange plot device involving disambiguation pages and arriving somewhere on the fatal day and discovering that a town has just changed its name, would lead to the inevitable denouement... (you know, like all those failed 'avoiding death' scenarios in the Final Destination film series - if you've not seen them, best avoided really). Carcharoth On 2/12/13, Newyorkbrad <newyorkbrad(a)gmail.com> wrote:

I would look up my obituary on the [[Wikipedia:Deceased Wikipedians]] page and see what was listed as my place of death. Then, I would make sure never to go there. Newyorkbrad On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 2:09 PM, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:

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Carcharoth

12:05 a.m.

On 2/12/13, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/18dcov/if_someone_gave_you_the_e…

On a meta-philosophical point, would you be able in the ten minutes you had available be able to check if what you were reading was in a vandalised state or not, and would you have time to check the sources? Seeing as it is the sources you need to read to verify what you are reading... (no-one takes on blind trust what they read on Wikipedia without checking the sources, do they now??). Carcharoth PS. You might find that the page(s) you chose to read had been protected for years, or was in the middle of an edit war. Or that the entire encyclopedia had been 'checked' and published and was 'finished'? Would that be a cause for celebration or not? OK, I suppose this is all missing the point of the question...

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David Gerard

12:41 a.m.

On 12 February 2013 23:05, Carcharoth <carcharothwp(a)googlemail.com> wrote:

PS. You might find that the page(s) you chose to read had been protected for years, or was in the middle of an edit war. Or that the entire encyclopedia had been 'checked' and published and was 'finished'? Would that be a cause for celebration or not? OK, I suppose this is all missing the point of the question...

It's interesting. If you were in 1890, and you got ten minutes' access to an Encyclopedia Britannica from 1990 - what would you look up? - d.

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Nathan

1:17 a.m.

Some equivalent of "random article" 100 times fast. But what if Wikipedia 100 years from now is delivered via wireless neural network, in the form of direct memory transfer? Then maybe you would need more than that 10 minute period just to figure out how to work the damn thing. On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 6:41 PM, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:

On 12 February 2013 23:05, Carcharoth <carcharothwp(a)googlemail.com> wrote:

PS. You might find that the page(s) you chose to read had been protected for years, or was in the middle of an edit war. Or that the entire encyclopedia had been 'checked' and published and was 'finished'? Would that be a cause for celebration or not? OK, I suppose this is all missing the point of the question...

It's interesting. If you were in 1890, and you got ten minutes' access to an Encyclopedia Britannica from 1990 - what would you look up? - d. _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l

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Anthony

1:33 a.m.

Place of death: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycenae,_New_York Make sure you stay away from [[Troy, New York]] too. And don't bother predicting its destruction. No one will believe you. On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 6:01 PM, Carcharoth <carcharothwp(a)googlemail.com> wrote:

Yeah, like that would work! Some strange plot device involving disambiguation pages and arriving somewhere on the fatal day and discovering that a town has just changed its name, would lead to the inevitable denouement... (you know, like all those failed 'avoiding death' scenarios in the Final Destination film series - if you've not seen them, best avoided really). Carcharoth On 2/12/13, Newyorkbrad <newyorkbrad(a)gmail.com> wrote:

I would look up my obituary on the [[Wikipedia:Deceased Wikipedians]] page and see what was listed as my place of death. Then, I would make sure never to go there. Newyorkbrad On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 2:09 PM, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/18dcov/if_someone_gave_you_the_e… - d. _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l

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geni

6:28 a.m.

On 12 February 2013 23:41, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:

On 12 February 2013 23:05, Carcharoth <carcharothwp(a)googlemail.com> wrote: It's interesting. If you were in 1890, and you got ten minutes' access to an Encyclopedia Britannica from 1990 - what would you look up?

"gold" perhaps in the hope of finding where future reserves would be. In terms of technology I guess Horseless carriage, telephone, and railroad for the more practically minded. For the more fanciful (or at least those in touch with sci-fi pulp or otherwise) Time travel, Steam man, space travel. Bit early for Free silver. -- geni

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WereSpielChequers

10:36 a.m.

Putting my 1890 hat on I would say Romanov, as much of the shape of European history is decided by the player with the most options. WSC On 12 February 2013 23:41, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:

On 12 February 2013 23:05, Carcharoth <carcharothwp(a)googlemail.com> wrote:

PS. You might find that the page(s) you chose to read had been protected for years, or was in the middle of an edit war. Or that the entire encyclopedia had been 'checked' and published and was 'finished'? Would that be a cause for celebration or not? OK, I suppose this is all missing the point of the question...

It's interesting. If you were in 1890, and you got ten minutes' access to an Encyclopedia Britannica from 1990 - what would you look up? - d. _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l

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Tim Starling

14 Feb 14 Feb

3:41 a.m.

On 13/02/13 10:41, David Gerard wrote:

On 12 February 2013 23:05, Carcharoth <carcharothwp(a)googlemail.com> wrote:

PS. You might find that the page(s) you chose to read had been protected for years, or was in the middle of an edit war. Or that the entire encyclopedia had been 'checked' and published and was 'finished'? Would that be a cause for celebration or not? OK, I suppose this is all missing the point of the question...

It's interesting. If you were in 1890, and you got ten minutes' access to an Encyclopedia Britannica from 1990 - what would you look up?

Maybe some disease of local concern. Water-borne diseases like typhoid or cholera would be a lucky choice, since ten minutes would just about give you time to follow a q.v. to "chlorination" and make the relevant discovery some 4 years early. Calcium hypochlorite was already widely available, all you've got to do is mix it with your drinking water. -- Tim Starling

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Jussi-Ville Heiskanen

21 Feb 21 Feb

2:21 p.m.

On Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 4:41 AM, Tim Starling <tstarling(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:

On 13/02/13 10:41, David Gerard wrote:

On 12 February 2013 23:05, Carcharoth <carcharothwp(a)googlemail.com> wrote:

PS. You might find that the page(s) you chose to read had been protected for years, or was in the middle of an edit war. Or that the entire encyclopedia had been 'checked' and published and was 'finished'? Would that be a cause for celebration or not? OK, I suppose this is all missing the point of the question...

It's interesting. If you were in 1890, and you got ten minutes' access to an Encyclopedia Britannica from 1990 - what would you look up?

Maybe some disease of local concern. Water-borne diseases like typhoid or cholera would be a lucky choice, since ten minutes would just about give you time to follow a q.v. to "chlorination" and make the relevant discovery some 4 years early. Calcium hypochlorite was already widely available, all you've got to do is mix it with your drinking water.

As many of the articles I currently regularly check to see how badly vandalized or not they are... Probably given that the scale of time is such, the relative amount of active editing in them wouldn't be a concern, so I would go for pure degree of concern in general. Mother Theresa, Martin Luther, Solon, List of Occultists, Isaac Newton's Occult Studies. -- -- Jussi-Ville Heiskanen, ~ [[User:Cimon Avaro]]

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12 comments

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participants (9)

Anthony
Carcharoth
David Gerard
geni
Jussi-Ville Heiskanen
Nathan
Newyorkbrad
Tim Starling
WereSpielChequers