It seems like a catastrophic civilizational failure that we don’t have confident common knowledge of how colds spread.
If I were listing out facts about humanity that would convince aliens we’re pretty primitive, this should be up there. Having better knowledge wouldn’t even require fancy conceptual breakthroughs, just creating some controlled conditions and measuring things. Or just measuring things comprehensively for a while.
So, curating this piece as a step in the right direction. This might not get solved before AI can figure it out all from first principles, but it feels better for not all of us to simply accept cold happens.
+1 to turning off faucets with paper towel (and the same for door handles in bathrooms).
Curated. The OP said it right:
If I were listing out facts about humanity that would convince aliens we’re pretty primitive, this should be up there. Having better knowledge wouldn’t even require fancy conceptual breakthroughs, just creating some controlled conditions and measuring things. Or just measuring things comprehensively for a while.
So, curating this piece as a step in the right direction. This might not get solved before AI can figure it out all from first principles, but it feels better for not all of us to simply accept cold happens.
+1 to turning off faucets with paper towel (and the same for door handles in bathrooms).