I agree with the message of the article, but I do not think it is forever going to be impossible to query what science currently knows.
Improvements in search technology cause a decrease in the time taken to do a reasonable search for any existing knowledge on a topic. Before the internet you might have had to read dozens of journals to have a vague idea of whether a field had discovered something in particular. Now you can do an online search. Conceivably, a future search engine could be good enough that it could take some imprecise (non-jargon) search terms, and bring up the most relevant and up-to-date research on the topic.
This would be great for public perception of science. Consider your uncle typing “How does gravity work?”, and being presented not only with a pop-science description (as you would today), but also with the latest peer-reviewed work and a list of prerequisite reading, should he want a more thorough understanding. It’d be harder for people to worship ignorance if there was less of a barrier between them and knowledge.
I agree with the message of the article, but I do not think it is forever going to be impossible to query what science currently knows.
Improvements in search technology cause a decrease in the time taken to do a reasonable search for any existing knowledge on a topic. Before the internet you might have had to read dozens of journals to have a vague idea of whether a field had discovered something in particular. Now you can do an online search. Conceivably, a future search engine could be good enough that it could take some imprecise (non-jargon) search terms, and bring up the most relevant and up-to-date research on the topic.
This would be great for public perception of science. Consider your uncle typing “How does gravity work?”, and being presented not only with a pop-science description (as you would today), but also with the latest peer-reviewed work and a list of prerequisite reading, should he want a more thorough understanding. It’d be harder for people to worship ignorance if there was less of a barrier between them and knowledge.