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accurately divines the stuff’s properties, noting those results.
Simple observation demonstrates the fallacy of this assump-
tion. When Nielsen used log-books to gather information on the
viewing habits of their sample families, the results were heavily
skewed to
Masterpiece Theater
and
Sesame Street
. Replacing the
journals with set-top boxes that reported what the set was actu-
ally tuned to showed what the average American family was really
watching: naked midget wrestling,
America’s Funniest Botched
Cosmetic Surgeries
and Jerry Springer presents: “My daughter
dresses like a slut!”
Ask a programmer how long it’ll take to write a given module,
or a contractor how long it’ll take to fix your roof. Ask a laconic
Southerner how far it is to the creek. Better yet, throw darts — the
answer’s likely to be just as reliable.
People are lousy observers of their own behaviors. Entire re-
ligions are formed with the goal of helping people understand
themselves better; therapists rake in billions working for this
very end.
Why should we believe that using metadata will help J. Random
User get in touch with her Buddha nature?
2.5 Schemas aren’t neutral
In meta-utopia, the lab-coated guardians of epistemology sit
down and rationally map out a hierarchy of ideas, something like
this:
Nothing:
Black holes
Everything:
Matter:
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