I’d be wary of making a thing like that. Even ignoring the EU’s bizarre “Right to be forgotten” law, people should be allowed to change their opinion, and such a website would incentivise consistency only. Not truth; consistency.
One of the things which inspired this idea was this thread: “okay, yes, it seems that Eliezer might well have said something like that, back in 2001”. Eliezer already doesn’t get to be forgotten. But if people are attacking him for things he said back in 2001, it seems like an improvement if we make it obvious that he said them back in 2001.
But for other people, I can see how this could be a bad thing to have. I’d like to be able to write “they said this in 2001, but in 2010 they said the opposite” and have people accept “okay, they changed their mind”, but that doesn’t seem entirely realistic.
I’ve updated from “probably good idea, unsure how valuable” to “possibly good idea, high variance”.
Ideally it would have “he said it”, “he did not say it”, and “he has since retracted it”. As is, you could find where someone originally said something, and have no way of knowing if it has ever been retracted.
I’d be wary of making a thing like that. Even ignoring the EU’s bizarre “Right to be forgotten” law, people should be allowed to change their opinion, and such a website would incentivise consistency only. Not truth; consistency.
Are you sure that’s what you want?
Mm, good point.
One of the things which inspired this idea was this thread: “okay, yes, it seems that Eliezer might well have said something like that, back in 2001”. Eliezer already doesn’t get to be forgotten. But if people are attacking him for things he said back in 2001, it seems like an improvement if we make it obvious that he said them back in 2001.
But for other people, I can see how this could be a bad thing to have. I’d like to be able to write “they said this in 2001, but in 2010 they said the opposite” and have people accept “okay, they changed their mind”, but that doesn’t seem entirely realistic.
I’ve updated from “probably good idea, unsure how valuable” to “possibly good idea, high variance”.
Ideally it would have “he said it”, “he did not say it”, and “he has since retracted it”. As is, you could find where someone originally said something, and have no way of knowing if it has ever been retracted.
:My idea version of the wiki would include a history of the person’s ideas.
There still might be be problems with people (I’m thinking of Moldbug) whose ideas are hard to parse.
That wouldn’t prevent selective quoting, and all the other typical human behaviour which would, still, incentivise consistency.