There's more to history than Wikipedia. Like physical books
this post was submitted on 01 May 2025
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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I didn't even think of that 🤦
I've been online for too long
Back in my day you had to buy Wikipedia. It came in like 20 massive volumes that ate up a shelf or two.
Thinking about it… I wonder what my parents did with our copies…
I doubt Britanica has a page dedicated to Limp Bizkit.
The encyclopedia even came on CD for a while. It was called Encarta. But I loved my parent's World Book Encyclopedia much more.
Still have em! They'll be the last source of actual knowledge once the AI slop destroys us.
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Who are "they"?
Tech bros like musk who capture companies to gut them.
But Wikipedia isn't a company. It's a non-profit foundation.
Yes, and Musk this year said he would defund and potentially disband (for being "terrorist orgs") any nonprofit he didnt like. He was kind of meaning the ACLU at the time but it includes Wikipedia too potentially for the disbanding part
I mean they can try to censor it but I really don't see why the wikimedia foundation wouldn't just move shop to a different country, or a different group just starts running a mirror of it. Like it might be down for a while, at which time we would have to use mirrors, but I can't see any future where its just gone forever.
I mean every historical source is full of one sided propaganda.
Have you ever heard the phrase "history is written by winners"?
What have keep history alive is not Wikipedia. Is the fact that multiple people from multiple POV write things down and we can find and read multiple sources.
Don't get me wrong, Wikipedia is great, but it's not what keeps history more or less accurate. Take into account that Wikipedia is a sum up of other sources. In order to write to Wikipedia you must quote a primary source.
And AI really doesn't have much to do with anything here. Bad sources have existed forever, since Herodotus.
Wikipedia citing sources is exactly what keeps it accurate. Conflicting primary sources are both considered, and the discrepancies discussed.
Wouldn't it make sense to just host the website from another country, outside of US jurisdiction?
There are a lot of citations to things like Britannica from 1911 that is archived and public domain.
Start downloading comrades