The lure of YouTube is similar to the lure of a library, or the lure of a cable TV system (except with about a billion channels).
Pick almost any topic, from the trivial to the sophisticated, and there is almost always some content on YouTube about it. Want to watch cats jump when startled by cucumbers? It's out there. Want to learn how to change the valve seals on a particular type of car engine? Somebody has probably done that job and filmed it. Curious about the Treaties of Brest-Litovsk? There are several presentations about the subject given by knowledgeable historians.
Is a lot of it trivial, useless, and/or offensive? Sure. YouTube is a human institution and therefore follows Sturgeon's Law (90% of it is crap). But by sheer force of volume (literally billions of videos), there is plenty of worthwhile information.
Sturgeon's Law? Fish law? I dunno though SP. Remember the bar scene in Star Wars where all of the universe's weird creatures gathered together to hoist a few? That's what I perceive FB to be and UTUBE and all the other foreignly odd participant who gather together for what purpose? Learn? Show off? Brag? Kill time? Of course you cannot control who goes into libraries but I'm pretty sure drunk skunks drug addicts and lying traitors don't frequent them. When 4D took over Twitter he foreverly crapped it up. His random speeches/talks to the press are always the same. MEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEME. BADDEMSBADDEMSBADDEMSBADDDEMS. MEMEMEMEMEMEMEEMEMEMEMEMEME. What's the point of hooking up/checking in when it's all fake phony fictitious balderol scripted by Vlad Putin and Russia? The 4D cabal et all RUSSKYIZED our country. A pox on all their houses. Thank you for your reply. When was the last time you went to a library or a book store and held a book in your hand? Unless you are OLD School you probably can't remember. Since Kindle how many people read books? Podcast this and livestream that. Sheesh. :(
This post was edited by RosieG at December 4, 2019 4:30 AM MST
Sturgeon's Law is not named for the fish, but for the science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon. As the story goes, someone interviewing Sturgeon asked him what he thought about the state of science fiction literature at the time. Sturgeon reportedly replied, "Well, 90% of it is crap."
The interviewer expressed surprise at the negative assessment, given that Sturgeon himself was a sci-fi author. Sturgeon responded, "Yes, but 90% of everything is crap." Hence, the birth of Sturgeon's Law (90% of everything is crap).
I LOVE the law SP. Made me crack up. But honestly I think 90% is kinda high and I think it varies depending upon the profession. Politics is 100% crap right? But quantum physics? Dr. Stephen Hawking? Kip Thorne? Albert Einstein? So I think it's a sliding scale. Whatcha think? Thank you for your reply SP. Perhaps the next question might interest you.
I don't know about physics in particular, but I've read a fair number of scientific/academic papers as part of my educational process. Many of them do not do much to advance our understanding of the world (whether due to overly narrow focus, small effect size shown, or poor methodology). I don't know if the number is 90%, but it's significantly above zero.
And, yes, there are certainly some human endeavors (politics, advertising, used car sales, etc.) where 90% is probably the optimistic lower bound...:-D.
There is a definite advantage to being ignorant SP. You can suspend disbelief without any problem. That eliminates barriers to wonder. When you KNOW better you aren't going to believe the unbelievable.Of course everything is constantly changing knowledge-wise about the universe. We learn new things and we leave behind what we thought was true. But that too one day may be left behind and replaced by a more truly true. Complicated right? Thank you for your reply. I wonder what the most reviled profession is? I'm gonna ask.
This post was edited by RosieG at December 4, 2019 10:59 AM MST
SaltyPebble 