Signal-to-noise ratio: Difference between revisions

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And that is before you consider the ''quality'' of our data. If 90% of all gathered data originates from the internet age,<ref>Eric Schmidt said something like this in 2011, and it sounds [https://blog.rjmetrics.com/2011/02/07/eric-schmidts-5-exabytes-quote-is-a-load-of-crap/ totally made up], but let’s run with it, hey?</ref> a good portion of our summed human knowledge comprises cat videos, [[The Jolly Contrarian:About|self indulgent wikis]] and hot takes on [[Twitter]] — so is ''shite'' data, even on its own terms.<ref>[[Get off Twitter]], okay? For all of our sakes.</ref>  
And that is before you consider the ''quality'' of our data. If 90% of all gathered data originates from the internet age,<ref>Eric Schmidt said something like this in 2011, and it sounds [https://blog.rjmetrics.com/2011/02/07/eric-schmidts-5-exabytes-quote-is-a-load-of-crap/ totally made up], but let’s run with it, hey?</ref> a good portion of our summed human knowledge comprises cat videos, [[The Jolly Contrarian:About|self indulgent wikis]] and hot takes on [[Twitter]] — so is ''shite'' data, even on its own terms.<ref>[[Get off Twitter]], okay? For all of our sakes.</ref>  


In any case, it follows that, should we transcend our meagre [[hermeneutic]] bubbles, and free the incarcerate race of {{sex|man}}, so to speak, the [[signal-to-noise ratio|signal]] of ''our'' data to the noise of ''all possible'' data out there is ''infinitesimal''.<ref>That means, ''really'' small.</ref>
In any case, it follows that, should we transcend our meagre [[hermeneutic]] bubbles, and free the incarcerate race of {{sex|man}}, so to speak, the [[signal-to-noise ratio|signal]] of ''our'' data to the '''noise''' of ''all possible data'' out there is ''infinitesimal''.<ref>That means, ''really'' small.</ref>


If this is what we’re meant to trust, you might ask what is so wrong with God. We are [[The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s Search for Meaning - Book Review|pattern-seeking machines]]. We don’t take the data as we find it, and coolly fashion objective axioms from it, carving nature at its joints: we bring our idiosyncratic prisms and pre-existing cognitive structures to it —our own “hot takes” — and wilfully create patterns from it to support our convictions.  
If this is what we’re meant to trust, you might ask what is so wrong with God. We are [[The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s Search for Meaning - Book Review|pattern-seeking machines]]. We don’t take the data as we find it, and coolly fashion objective axioms from it, carving nature at its joints: we bring our idiosyncratic prisms and pre-existing cognitive structures to it —our own “hot takes” — and wilfully create patterns from it to support our convictions.