[trilogic]

>How do we know which information was ground truth?

No One knows that´s the point. Is truth a constant or a personal definition! From the begining of times to now, no One knows.

Don´t forget, 8 billion people wake up every morning never questioning why are they here, why are they born? And they continue life like that is normal. Start there then you understand that "AI" or how I call it "Collective Organized Concentrated Information" it may finally help us to unswer some fundamental questions.

[irickt]

We still do not know where the urge for truth comes from; for as yet we have heard only of the obligation imposed by society that it should exist: to be truthful means using the customary metaphors—in moral terms: the obligation to lie according to a fixed convention, to lie herd-like in a style obligatory for all. Now man of course forgets that this is the way things stand for him. Thus he lies in the manner indicated, unconsciously and in accordance with habits which are centuries' old; and precisely by means of this unconsciousness and forgetfulness he arrives at his sense of truth.

Nietzsche.

On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense https://web.archive.org/web/20180625190456/http://oregonstat...

[CamperBob2]

Truth is just a tool that helps you make good predictions. It's increasingly clear that this is all intelligence amounts to: a constant cycle of prediction and error correction with the goal of maximizing reproductive fitness in humans or minimizing a loss function in machines.

One serious problem we're facing lately is that truth is not always predictive of how systems controlled by bad-faith actors will behave and evolve. We live in a post-truth era, made possible by social networking and information technologies in general. It's not enough to "lie according to a fixed convention," as there are now multiple competing conventions.

This was always the case to some extent, but these days the impedance mismatch between truth and consequences is a target for zero-sum arbitrage. The truth won't set you free if you join the wrong cult; it's more likely to bankrupt you or worse.

[0x3f]

> 8 billion people wake up every morning never questioning why are they here, why are they born?

People question this all the time

[hdgvhicv]

Indeed, philosophy has been around for millennia, probably longer than the written word.

[amelius]

This is linked to (imho) one of the greatest philosophical experiments humans can do:

1. simulate a world with very basic "physical" rules (so it is free from human bias)

2. let the simulation run until organisms exist

3. let it run longer so the organisms develop language

4. now see if the organisms talk about things like "consciousness" and "why are we here"

The nice thing is that we don't have to do the experiment to think about what it means if 4 happens or not.

[Lerc]

I'd be prepared to accept 7 billion don't.

[trilogic]

I have met some people in my lifetime, never heard any questioning that, (even being high LOL). I don´t see anyone in social media asking that neither. Maybe we live in parallel worlds.

[marginalia_nu]

> No One knows that´s the point. Is truth a constant or a personal definition! From the begining of times to now, no One knows.

I don't think this is a well defined question. Definitions aren't found in nature or the laws of science, but objects that we define and introduce into a logical context. There may be multiple, contradictory definitions of a word. That is fine, as long as you pick one, and you're clear about which one you picked.

[noiv]

You have truth until someone finds a counter example, which can be ignored. So, truth is just a matter of conventions shared by humans.

[re-thc]

> Is truth a constant or a personal definition!

It always has been what you believed in.

E.g. at 1 point the Earth was flat. Now it's round. 100s of years later maybe it's a Hexagon.

The so-called knowledge and backing all come back to certain assumptions holding and that's based on the knowledge today. It's not real real reality. For all we know we could be in a game simulation and there are real real humans pulling the strings.

[trilogic]

>It always has been what you believed in

That can´t be it. By that statement if I belive that I can fly that would not be the "Truth". Therefore the "Truth" has to be a CONSTANT.

[seanhunter]

That’s complete nonsense. The universe doesn’t care what we think.

The earth has always been earth-shaped. We can think it’s flat, spherical, “turnip-shaped”[1] but the universe doesn’t care what we think. The earth doesn’t change shape based on our perception.

[1] Yes some people think this for some reason I can’t fathom