Pineapple Express: Someone Is Wrong on the Internet?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This... kinds sounds like appeal to authority. Only those who have read enough ought to speak? Gatekeep much?

Gatekeeping would be arguing the point in the other thread.

I am making an observation off in an empty lot, rather than telling the person they're uninformed. They are free to share their opinions, unencumbered by what I might think of them.

And I'm not saying that those who aren't well read can't speak. I am responding to a sweeping statement made by someone with an admittedly extremely narrow view of a subject.

 

[TiQuinn]

Sure. And that's the intent of the thread. It just seemed evident to me that there's a common and recurring situation Whizbang was mostly likely reacting to (but not directly responding to, thus avoiding an unpleasant interaction). That's the most likely scenario, especially since we know Whizbang's a pleasant and reasonable poster. And that Umbran was stretching to an uncharitable interpretation.

Oh, so much to unpack there.

While I get that the intent of the thread is anonymity and safety, and I have most certainly availed myself of that, I don’t think Umbran’s response was wrong. It’s just without full context, I can’t possibly know which way I fall on that side of the opinion. I think both sides have a point.

 

[Umbran]

I know librarians still mad about the Library of Alexandria burning.

I was Rome some years ago, and watched someone have a nigh existential crisis over an obelisk.

The obelisk was over 1800 years old, from Egypt. It had been moved by the Romans, and installed in Rome. Then, in an earthquake, it had fallen over, and buried in rubble, and not stood back up. And, over the centuries, all record of it was lost. Nobody in Rome, nobody in Egypt, no documentation of any kind known to man, knew that this obleisk ever existed.

Then, one day when they were digging around the current Parliament building in Rome (for sewer work, if I recall correctly), the obelisk was discovered, and the record of where it came from, and when, and by whom, was written on the stone itself.

And this idea that there's things we absolutely and totally forget completely, that information about ourselves is just lost, every day, bit by bit, minute by minute - wait, another thing has been forgotten by mankind. And another thing. And now something else... - was a thing that needed a sit-down on the curb to work through.

 

[CharlesWallace]

I was Rome some years ago, and watched someone have a nigh existential crisis over an obelisk.

The obelisk was over 1800 years old, from Egypt. It had been moved by the Romans, and installed in Rome. Then, in an earthquake, it had fallen over, and buried in rubble, and not stood back up. And, over the centuries, all record of it was lost. Nobody in Rome, nobody in Egypt, no documentation of any kind known to man, knew that this obleisk ever existed.

Then, one day when they were digging around the current Parliament building in Rome (for sewer work, if I recall correctly), the obelisk was discovered, and the record of where it came from, and when, and by whom, was written on the stone itself.

And this idea that there's things we absolutely and totally forget completely, that information about ourselves is just lost, every day, bit by bit, minute by minute - wait, another thing has been forgotten by mankind. And another thing. And now something else... - was a thing that needed a sit-down on the curb to work through.

Big Ozymandias vibes?

It's interesting that I as a person forget stuff about my own life constantly, and that mirrors humanity forgetting its own past in the same way.

 

[Scribe]

--

Crown Prince of Bad Takes.

 

[Deset Gled]

Crown Prince of Bad Takes.

 

[TiQuinn]

I was Rome some years ago, and watched someone have a nigh existential crisis over an obelisk.

The obelisk was over 1800 years old, from Egypt. It had been moved by the Romans, and installed in Rome. Then, in an earthquake, it had fallen over, and buried in rubble, and not stood back up. And, over the centuries, all record of it was lost. Nobody in Rome, nobody in Egypt, no documentation of any kind known to man, knew that this obleisk ever existed.

Then, one day when they were digging around the current Parliament building in Rome (for sewer work, if I recall correctly), the obelisk was discovered, and the record of where it came from, and when, and by whom, was written on the stone itself.

And this idea that there's things we absolutely and totally forget completely, that information about ourselves is just lost, every day, bit by bit, minute by minute - wait, another thing has been forgotten by mankind. And another thing. And now something else... - was a thing that needed a sit-down on the curb to work through.

On a very different scale, we're seeing a lot of that happen right now with the internet. There's often this assumption that we'll always have Internet Archive and Wayback Machine available to access sites and pages from even just a few years before, and nope...we have to really work to keep those tools intact to have a chance of finding those things, or else they'll slip away too.

 

[Scribe]

--

Ever just watch people make mistakes, watch as they overcomplicate their lives, make issues way more of a focus than they deserve, when the answers are right in front of them?

You try and help, over and over, but eventually you have to just cut the cord?

 

[Thomas Shey]

I know librarians still mad about the Library of Alexandria burning.

Well, other than librarians being generically hostile to destroying libraries, part of the issue there is we're pretty sure there's knowledge lost there we never did, and probably never can, reclaim.

 

[Mannahnin]

Big Ozymandias vibes?

It's interesting that I as a person forget stuff about my own life constantly, and that mirrors humanity forgetting its own past in the same way.

Big same. One of the reasons I'm reluctant to let go of photos and possessions. Because of the memories they're tied to or can invoke, that I might not otherwise be reminded of.