7mo ago

If you could have every answer to your history based questions, would you take them?

It turns out that something has been watching the Earth in minute detail since before the solar system was formed, down to a sub molecular level. It can give you the answers to any historical questions, but not things like what someone was thinking or feeling.

All the world's problems have been solved, and the information is only used with the strictest privacy, e.g. you can only get information on living people with their permission, or if you're a member of law enforcement solving a crime.

The question is, if you have a hobby, job, or other reason to research the past, like being a geologist or genealogist, would you take the answers, or would you prefer to do the research yourself?

26 comments

For sure! History is the scientific study of the past using all available evidence. If new evidence showed up, we should absolutely use it.
Take the Dead Sea Scrolls. They are a huge cache of texts, many over 2000 years old, containing biblical texts and fragments. The Vatican tried to buy up and conceal them, thinking that they might contradict existing manuscripts. They only let approved researchers have very limited access.
To help the research, some of the scholars created a concordance - basically a list of words and how many times each appeared. A copy was leaked. It became the world's largest Wordle puzzle and some scholars were able to essentially reverse engineer it into the original text. They published the results, even identifying some of the speculated variants. It was so accurate that the Vatican ended up releasing the original scrolls for study. There was no longer a point to concealing it.
Although the discovery was tremendous for the field, it didn't end up ruining anyone's religion. It just offered new insights into the composition and development of the Bible. Pretty cool.

I would, but as well as obvious mysteries (JFK, Loch Ness Monster, the success of Ed Sheerin) I'd really just want to know dumb stuff like:
Where did I leave my favourite hat when I lost it 6 years ago?
How many steps have I taken in my entire lifetime?
Which song have I listened to most?
Although it would also be very useful for identifying music in cases where Soundhound, !tipofmytongue@lemmy.world, etc fail.
- This is the way.
- the success of Ed Sheerin
  That made me snort laugh :D
  I'd really just want to know dumb stuff...
  I like your thinking. I was thinking mostly about stuff that is hard to research, the more serious things, I hadn't thought about the 'dumb' stuff too. That sounds like a lot more fun :)
- I like your thinking. I'd love a lifetime step count, or even something like how many boxes of cereal I've consumed over my life.
  I'd also want to check up on what famous historical figures got up to. Or where unknown folks came from prior to being recorded.
  Where did the ka'bar's white twin come from and end up?
  How many lovers did Queen Elizabeth I have?
  And many more I often think but can't call to mind now.
- Ed Shearing
  Nepotism. There's some story I heard about how he coach surfed in California until he got a contract, and I figured he must have SOME talent, then found out he was staying on Jamie Foxx's couch, so clearly some he knew someone...
  Except unfortunately my 30 second Wikipedia fact check shows he didn't. He met Foxx because he was invited to be a guess on Foxx's show and must have made a good impression. He did make seemingly the hardway; he started out as a working musician working with other musicians and worked his way up. Didn't hurt that he got a positive review from Elton John early on, but the guy apparently has something.
  Damn. I thought I figured it out...

(I almost though this is a One Piece bait question.)
But seriously, yes I will, without hesitation. If I don't take it, someone else might and I won't even have a job as a geologist or genealogist.
- I haven't seen enough of One Piece to ask bait questions yet, I'm only half way through the Netflix series :)
  I was thinking that jobs would be one of the solved problems, as in you only have to work if you want to. I'm more curious about whether people would prefer to do the research because they enjoy it, or if they'd rather just tell the computer to give them their full family tree, for example.

I would for sure. I'm not even a historian or anything, I'm just a very curious person, and I like to come up with my own little theories for how and why things occur.
Also, I'd use it to figure out when my kids are lying. They all break my shit, but I want to know who to blame for what.
- Also, I'd use it to figure out when my kids are lying. They all break my shit, but I want to know who to blame for what.
  That raises an interesting question - where would the balance be between their privacy and your rights as a parent. You need to know at least some of their private information to teach them as you raise them, but would something like the scenario you raised cross the line into being invasive?
  
  The funny thing about being invasive is that it seems like it's only wrong if your suspicions are wrong.
  If someone reads through all of their spouses texts, it's creepy and controlling, but as soon as they find the nudes from a coworker, we all agree that it's justified.
  Rooting through your daughters diary is something that most will probably agree is out of line, but if it turns out they are planning to secretly meet with a grown man from the Internet, you'd be a hero.
  I'm not really saying if it's right or not, it's just an observation I've had.

I think there's definitely some cool things lost to history that could be answered:
Where did the voynich manuscript come from and who wrote it?
How did the romans make roman fire?
Where is Atlantis?
How did life come to be on earth?
Who was jack the ripper?
Did anyone see what I did on a may 16th 2011 at 7:16pm?
- Those are easy:
  A grifter.
  The true Roman way.
  Plato's Republic.
  Increasingly complex chemical interactions around thermal vents.
  Some rich guy.
  Nope.
  
  Their name?
  Their process?
  Their geological coordinates?
  Possibly?
  Nice.
- Did anyone see what I did on a may 16th 2011 at 7:16pm?
  Wait, that was you?! 😱
  
  No comment

I really want to know what the very first human(s) on the planet were up to.
- I read an Arthur C Clarke book a few years ago, and it was based around a device that could see anything, anywhere, some sort of microscopic portal I think. One of the characters used it to look back in time following someone's DNA, so seeing their mother, then their mother's mother and so on, and eventually saw the intelligence disappear from the distant ancestors eyes. I'm wording it badly, but the idea stuck with me.
  I'd love to know when that first spark of intelligence showed up, that separated us from animals, and what our ancestors either side of that divide did differently and similarly. I doubt that there would have been any significant differences at first, but those subtle differences could be fascinating :)

I would take the answers. I would just consider this as another reason to explore other things.
- Out of curiosity, what sort of things would you explore? I enjoy researching certain things, so having all the answers would spoil that for me.
  
  as to my understanding, the thing/being can only answer how questions and will probably be poor at why questions.
  knowing some event happened can be a step on explaining a more generic pattern to events. this could be one of the avenues of exploration.

I would take the answer, but I also wouldn't be comfortable with it telling anything about me or others to law enforcement based on its own personal opinion of what is corrupt or not, which is unlikely to line up with mine, and might well lead to things like right wing places arresting people for being LGBT+, or criticising the government, or women trying to leave the Taliban.
- Ah, sorry, I didn't think of that side of things. I was thinking more along the lines of it could solve things that everyone agrees is a crime, like murder.
  My line of thought was more just would you want the easy answers, or would you prefer to have to work for them.
  
  Definitely would want the easy answers. And even the definition of murder is divisive amongst people (is it ok in self defense? Is it ok if they make mocking cartoons of your god?), so do you need like 98% of people to agree it's a crime?

26 comments