[PLUG-TALK] Internet's Long Memory
Russell Senior
seniorr at aracnet.com
Tue Feb 10 01:32:51 UTC 2009
>>>>> "glen" == glen e p ropella <gepr at ropella.net> writes:
Russell> Consider the perpetual injustice that transpires when some
Russell> loudmouth famous person gets the credit (because books say he
Russell> said it) instead of the introvert that whispered in his ear
Russell> and was the true genius, but never got any credit at all.
Russell> Maybe just repeating what you've found holds up to reality,
Russell> and skipping credit-giving is a better way to go. If someone
Russell> cares who gets credit, maybe they should look it up
Russell> themselves?
glen> But "looking it up" assumes that our history books (or at least
glen> some history book somewhere) has the accurate story. And that's
glen> just not the case. How much of, say, Einstein's work was
glen> inspired by those around him? And how much credit do we usually
glen> give to that constellation of people versus how much credit is
glen> accurately described in our history books?
glen> We just don't know the answer to such questions. And your
glen> answer will differ depending on whose version you "look it up"
glen> in. So "maybe they should look it up themselves" is not an
glen> adequate solution. A better solution is for the speaker to make
glen> reasonable attempts to include her sources as she repeats.
glen> After all, who better to know her sources than the speaker
glen> herself?
Ah, and maybe I heard this somewhere ;-), but then the looker-upper
would have the responsibility of establishing the credibility of their
sources, which might be a good locality for that to reside.
Fundamentally, I am just way less interested in the source of the good
idea than in the good idea itself. Maybe I should start all
conversations with a disclaimer of any personal credit, in case I say
something smart. Once you find a source of good ideas, naturally
you'll be interested in going back to them. But whether they are the
original source is less important than that they continue to flow.
--
Russell Senior ``I have nine fingers; you have ten.''
seniorr at aracnet.com
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