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by bluGill15 hours ago |
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upvoteby wrqvrwvq14 hours ago|
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People say this without any evidence. This ai-post is just regurgitating hn-thread "received wisdom". The evidence for the existence of a library is thin and hard to piece together, but points to more than a myth. I appreciate that people want real proof of anything, but dumping an ai-slop summary is hardly doing any better than accepting the existence of a large library.
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upvoteby adastra2213 hours ago|
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The Library almost certainly existed. It is the destruction (by deliberate fire) that is probably myth.
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upvoteby z3phyr10 hours ago|
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Its destruction multiple times (in sieges and uncontrolled fires) is current historical consensus.
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upvoteby adastra224 hours ago|
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The sieges and fires you are referring to were hundreds of years before the supposed destruction at the hands of Christian mobs (e.g. as depicted in the movie Agora or in Sagan’s Cosmos). The latter is unsupported.
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upvoteby toenail10 hours ago|
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Historical consensus? So the non scientific view? Science is not consensus based.
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upvoteby tsimionescu8 hours ago|
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If you want to know what the science says on some topic, you have exactly two valid options:

1. Become an expert in said topic, reading the broad literature, becoming familiar with points and counterpoints, figuring out how research actually works in the field by contributing some papers of your own, and forming your own personal informed opinion on the preponderance of the evidence.

2. Look at the experts' consensus on said topic

Of course, you have other options. A popular one is to adopt the view of one expert in the field that you happen to like, who may or may not accept the consensus view - but this is far more arbitrary than 1 or 2.

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upvoteby b1128 hours ago|
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As a Canadian I love the US, think of them as family, but also view them as some sort of relative which has lost their senses. Before most recent times, we'd sadly shake our heads, as this relative does weird things, yet still hope for the best for them. Yet while rambling blathers about invading Canada and compelling 51st statehood would be fondly tolerated in grandpa, not so much for a nation with a massive army and a joy in using it.

So I purpose we strengthen another aspect of American "democracy" that Canadians find amusing, the concept of "hiring people for popularity not competency". Americans, especially at the local level, vote for judges, police chiefs, even dog-catchers, so why not a local scientist! Rather than 1 or 2, we can conjoin this concept with your third option, yet with the officiousness that only a vote can provide!

Each municipality can have a local head scientist, which will proclaim what scientific fact is correct. People can vote on such candidates, and their platform of scientifically correct "things" during election time.

It will all work out very well for them I'm sure, and hopefully, with science thus democratized, perhaps they will be less of a threat over time.

(Sorry, I don't know why your comment made this pop into my head)

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upvoteby taffydavid7 hours ago|
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Why not just have them vote on the truth. That would be very entertaining and keep them all busy
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upvoteby jibal7 hours ago|
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Of course science is consensus based ... consensus is a fundamental part of the scientific process, which is conducted by a community of scientists. Consensus is the end result of attempts at reproducibility and falsification, of the ongoing process by which scientists challenge the claims and purported findings of other scientists. Without it, all you have are assertions from which people can pick and choose based on their biases (as we see, for instance, with people who deny climate or vaccine science by cherrypicking claims).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_consensus

https://skepticalscience.com/explainer-scientific-consensus....

https://tomhopper.me/2011/11/02/scientific-consensus/

And even if you reject consensus as being essential to science, calling the consensus view "the non scientific view" is obviously mistaken, a basic error in logic.

This is all well understood by working scientists so I'm not going to debate it or comment on it further.

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upvoteby 7 hours ago|
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